RIO DE JANEIRO, Nov 05 (IPS) – This year’s presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) major industrial and emerging economies allows Brazil to pursue the dream of creating a global fuel market without current trade barriers.
Brazil has been trying, at least since the beginning of this century, to liberalize the global trade in ethanol, but so far there has been no success. The situation is more positive now, with the growing climate crisis and other countries joining the production and use of bioenergy.
Presiding over the G20 this year, Brazil is in charge of issues and projects to be discussed, to create working groups and to promote agreements, which will be highlighted at the annual summit of this group that will be held on 18-19 November in Rio de Janeiro.
The government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva promoted social issues and included biofuels as a key part of the energy transition. Many of its proposals were approved in industry working groups or meetings of ministers, experts and civil society in 2024.
“The current situation, driven by Brazil’s active leadership in the G20 and progress in the regulation of alternative fuels, gives an optimistic view of the country’s success in expanding the biofuels market,” summed up Rafaela Guedes, executive officer at the Brazilian Center for International Relations. (Cebri).
“The focus is no longer just on ethanol,” he said in an interview with IPS in Rio de Janeiro. New products, such as sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and bio-bunker for marine transport, open up more markets and reduce the risk of large suppliers.
These include biodiesel and green diesel, both of which are derived from animals and plants but differ in their production process and properties, the latter being chemically similar to fossil diesel.
Then there is ethanol, which is already produced on a large scale, and biomethane, which is the equivalent of natural gas and a by-product of refining biogas extracted from animal manure, as well as agricultural, urban and industrial waste.
All these products received new regulations and incentives in Brazil with the so-called Future Fuels Law, passed by the National Congress in September and effective from October 8, 2024.
The new law should attract investment and reduce trade barriers by defining rules and standards in a country that is a leader in biofuel production and presents itself as a “supplier and also a strategic partner for innovation and energy security,” said Guedes, an economist specializing in the energy transition. .
Fear of dependence
Ethanol flourished as a free-trade fuel in part because of the fear of being cornered by a few producers. Brazil and the US account for nearly 80 percent of global production, with 35.4 billion liters and 58 billion liters respectively by 2023.
Brazil tried to promote production in countries with high production or potential to increase sugarcane cultivation, such as India, Cuba and Mexico, in order to reduce barriers to international ethanol trade.
In addition to the fear of dependency, environmental concerns and food security are still another stumbling block. It is argued, especially in Europe, that bioenergy is taking the world away from food production.
That was the claim of Cuba, which until the 1980s was the largest sugar trader in the world, but its sugarcane production has decreased to the point where it is now limited to supply the domestic market of ten million citizens, who suffer from tuberculosis. great difficulty of strength.
But now India, which had not wanted to, has joined the production of ethanol, as has happened in other countries, as its use, combined with gasoline, has spread to more than 70 countries. Investments in biofuels have increased to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“This diversity of producers reduces the possibility of excessive consumption” and thus the fear of dependence, according to Guedes, who says that the growth of the production capacity of emerging countries and the consequent increase in global supply are positive aspects of a free global market for biofuels.
“India has invested heavily in biofuels in its energy security and emissions reduction programs. Its policies to use agricultural waste to produce ethanol and biodiesel contribute to increasing its production capacity, as a potential exporter in the medium term,” he said as an example.
Some countries in Asia and Latin America use their abundant resources of biomass and organic waste to produce bioenergy, biomethane and green diesel, in what represents another model.
The input is waste, not food
Restrictions based on food security were also relaxed because biofuels are largely made from waste, whether agricultural, urban or industrial.
Second-generation (2G) ethanol, made from waste such as bagasse, is another solution. The United States and Brazil have productive plants, which are set to expand rapidly.
In Brazil, Raizen, a major sugar and bioenergy producer with the participation of the British oil consortium Shell, has been operating its first 2G ethanol plants since 2015 and estimates that this technology can produce 50% ethanol there is a similar area planted with sugarcane.
Guedes also added that the International Energy Agency has defined sustainable agricultural practices, such as the integration of crops and livestock-forestry, which is growing in Brazil, traceability in production chains and methods of defining sustainable energy, strengthening confidence in biofuels that benefit the climate.
These are policies that promote so-called low-carbon agriculture, maintain soil quality and ensure that Brazil’s agricultural borders can grow sustainably and without compromising food security, he said.
To be vague
But Brazil’s decision to promote fossil fuels, even globally, is causing confusion according to Pedro de Camargo Neto, a cattle rancher who leads a trade association of large farmers, seeking to harmonize his sector with nature, after decades of stubborn opposition.
“There is a conflict of interests, a difference of personality. If Brazil wants to lead in gas, it must produce new oil,” he told IPS by phone from Bandeirantes, a municipality in the central-western state of Mato Grosso do Sul. , where he has a farm.
He criticizes the intention of Petrobras, the national oil company, to drill near the Amazon river in search of oil deposits.
Large deposits of oil are believed to exist in the Equatorial Margin of northern Brazil, which is an extension of the already oil-producing waters of Guyana and Suriname.
New and abundant stocks could make oil and gas cheaper, hampering biofuels, said Camargo, who has chaired the Brazilian Rural Society, an important farmers’ group, and held senior positions in the agriculture ministry.
“Brazil doesn’t know what it wants,” he said.
This is because it promotes a free and global market for biofuels, for economic and environmental reasons, and at the same time it wants to be an oil producer, which damages the climate and its strategy.
The country currently ranks eighth in the world in oil production, with 4.3 million barrels (each holding 159 liters) per day on average by 2023.
The country should promote international measures to make fossil fuels more expensive. This will enable biofuels to grow everywhere, with increased investment in a market where Brazil is already a leader. Europe has already taken steps in this regard, Camargo said.
Oil exploration near the mouth of the Amazon has been blocked by the demands of the Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources, which considers Petrobras’ inspections and guarantees insufficient.
Approval or rejection of exploratory drilling will be ‘technical’, based on the local environmental impacts, according to Environment Minister Marina Silva.
This is a mistake, according to Camargo, who says it should be examined more widely, not because of the local effects, but because of the effects of the global climate, that is the emission of greenhouse gases, and because of the economic strategy of prioritizing biofuels, which is also in favor of the country’s foreign policy.
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
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