A sweet way to reduce CO2 emissions

February 20, 2009

Andris Piebalgs*

You probably have been reading a lot of terrible things about biofuels and the negative impact that they have had on food prices and CO2 emissions. Therefore I wanted to see with my own eyes how biofuels are produced in the country that probably produce the most in the world, Brazil. Seven million Brazilian cars run with flexi fuel systems that allow the driver to choose whether they want to run on gasoline or on alcohol.  Many chose one or the other based on environmental reasons, however many just take bioethanol for economic reasons. With such an alternative, Brazilian consumers did not suffer from the recent oil crisis while the rest of the world did.

So, bioethanol is a great alternative to oil consumption but at what price? Did Brazilians pay with higher food prices their fuel independence? The answer is no. Let me explain to you why. Brazil has 340 million hectares of arable land. 5% of this land is used for the production of grain, for instance (47 million ha), although the biggest share of the agricultural territory is occupied by pasture, 220 million ha. Sugar cane, on the contrary, just occupies 2% of the arable territory (7 million ha), of which half is used for the production of sugar. This means, that Brazil is running half of its cars with a product that occupies just 1% of their arable territory.

Small percentage indeed. Of course, if this threatens the Amazon forest maybe we would have to pay attention. Well the fact is that only 300,000 ha of territory is used for the production of sugar cane in the Northern Region of Brazil, where the Amazon forest grows. In fact, 99,7% of sugar cane plantations are at least at 2,000 km from the Amazon forest. This is unlikely to change because cultivating sugar cane so far from the place it is consumed it is economically not interesting. There is no significant sugarcane effect on natural landscapes, considering all methods used by scientists. Sugarcane has been expanding over areas already used by mankind. Methods presented different participation of crops and pasture in displacement areas. Sugarcane expansion is not linked to crops and pasture expansion, but agriculture is expanding despite sugarcane.

What about CO2 emissions? Nobody disputes nowadays that sugarcane can save up to 80% of CO2 if we compare it with the best of petrols (the sweet and light crude). But what I discovered in Brazil, is that the remaining of ethanol is used to produce electricity. Cane trash recovery and use for power is already being done. If we take into consideration the savings of CO2 of this electricity (it would have been produced otherwise, for instance with gas, coal or oil), savings of bioethanol can go as far as 130%!!!

I don’t know if after this explanation I have convinced you that biofuels, produced in a sustainable way are a good way to fight climate change, reduce oil dependency, and provide developing opportunities for tropical countries. However, if you are still not convinced, I suggest you do the same I did: go and see with your own eyes.

* Andris Piebalgs is Commissioner for Energy at the European Commission and writes on his personal blog http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/piebalgs/