|
|
ENERGY-LATIN AMERICA: Biofuel Boom Sparks Environmental Fears
By Mario Osava*
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 22, 2006 (Tierramérica) - The use of biofuels is on the rise in Latin America and is feeding dreams of abundance in
countries like Argentina and Colombia. But the experience of Brazil, a pioneer in this
alternative energy, raises questions about their potential negative environmental
consequences.
With ethanol and biodiesel as a springboard, Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
aims to turn his country into an energy superpower - in contrast to the 1970s when the
Brazilian economy was thrashed by its dependence on oil imports and its dramatic price
hikes.
But environmentalists warn that although biofuels reduce emissions of greenhouse gases
(which lead to global climate change), they could also trigger a massive expansion of the
biofuel crops, pushing the agricultural frontier deeper into the forests, destroying habitat
and biodiversity.
Alone for three decades in widespread use of ethanol, or ethyl alcohol, to replace a portion
of gasoline in vehicles, Brazil developed technologies and a sugarcane economy that
ensure its absolute competitiveness in exports, still limited by protectionist barriers and
an unstable international market. And this South American giant intends to fight for the
biodiesel market, where it lacks the same pioneering history.
Other countries in the region are trying to emulate the Brazilian strategy. Colombia and
Argentina stand out for strengthening legislation to encourage development of biofuels.
A 2001 Colombian law stipulates that the country's gasoline must have 10 percent ethanol
in 2009, with gradual increases to 25 percent in 15 to 20 years. A similar bill is being
drafted for biofuel, based on the African palm, from which 600,000 tonnes of oil are
already being produced yearly as food.
"Colombia could be third in production of biofuels, surpassed only by the United States
and Brazil, if production of palm oil for biodiesel comes out favourably," David Cala,
director of CORPODIB, a consortium of businesses, university and technology centres
involved in industry development of biotechnology, told Tierramérica.
Exports could reach 10 million litres daily of alcohol from sugarcane and beets, and three
million tonnes a year of biodiesel - two to three times greater than domestic
consumption - in 15 to 20 years, estimates Cala.
In Argentina, the Biofuels Act, approved in April, imposes a requirement of five percent
biodiesel or ethanol in petroleum derivatives beginning in January 2010.
"That obligatory minimum, which could be more," requires 600,000 tonnes of biodiesel
and 160,000 tonnes of ethanol annually for the domestic market, which would absorb
eight and three percent, respectively, of national output of soybeans and maize, Miguel
Almada, an economist for the National Biofuels Programme, told Tierramérica.
But furthermore, "in development is an export industry for ethanol and biodiesel of around
two million tonnes per year," he added.
These optimistic economic forecasts should, however, take into account the environment
variable. And Brazil's experience in this regard can teach some lessons.
"It is worrisome that a new economic cycle based on biofuels would trigger the expansion
of monoculture crops and, consequently, deforestation," says Délcio Rodrigues, an energy
expert with Vitae Civilis, a Brazilian non-governmental organisation that is active in
fighting climate change.
The sugarcane economy is not a good environmental model. In the southeastern state of
Sao Paulo, which produces 70 percent of Brazil's alcohol, the companies generally do not
obey the Forestry Code, which requires nature preservation of 20 percent of rural
properties. Furthermore, the cane fields are burned to facilitate the harvest, which creates
serious local air pollution, said Rodrigues in a Tierramérica interview.
Soy, the main raw material for biodiesel in Brazil, due to its massive current production,
"has already become one of the principal factors behind deforestation of the Amazon and
the Cerrado, a biome of savannahs and scrub forests that covers the extensive central area
of Brazil," said the expert.
Biodiesel began to be added to petroleum-based diesel in Brazil at a proportion of two
percent, and that will be increased to five percent in 2013. The country has opted for H-
BIO, a process of hydroconversion developed by the state-run oil giant Petrobras, which
adds up to 18 percent plant or animal oil in the petroleum refining process to produce
diesel.
Petrobras has already adapted three of its refineries, and plans to begin production in
December, seeking to save on imports of 256 million litres of diesel next year, and a
billion litres by 2010. Soybean oil will be the main input. H-BIO will not affect biodiesel
because they are complementary, say energy authorities.
Consumption of 840 million litres of biodiesel is forecast for 2007, with a mix of two
percent. The programme was designed to favour family farming for the production of
castor oil, palm and other sources of vegetable oils, with tax exemptions especially for
Brazil's poorest regions, in the northeast and north.
However, the plan involves small farmers only as simple suppliers of oil-producing crops,
without including them in the agro-industrial process, in cooperatives that at least process
the harvests for the oils, said Rodrigues. Petrobras should assume "social responsibility",
he said, adding that pressure from European importers to respect environmental
standards could prevent some harm.
Studies by the ministries of agriculture and environment identified - in the Brazilian
states that already have infrastructure to produce alcohol - 15 million hectares of
degraded areas that would be appropriate for agricultural expansion, Vania Araújo, from
the Environment Ministry, told Tierramérica.
This could triple the six million hectares currently planted with sugarcane, theoretically
without invading protected areas, but it would require a good monitoring system
coordinated with the state governments, because the environmental authority is
decentralised, said the official.
(*Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent. With reporting by Marcela Valente in Argentina and
Yadira Ferrer in Colombia. Originally published Sep. 16 by Latin American newspapers that
are part of the Tierramérica network. Tierramérica is a specialised news service produced
by IPS with the backing of the United Nations Development Programme and the United
Nations Environment Programme.) (END)
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
What is RSS?
