Environmental Sustainability
EU and Brazil join forces over biofuels (The Guardian)
EU leaders are concerned about an ethanol production that meets environmental, labour and social standards, according to this story by The Guardian.
It is a good picture for Brazil and other poor and developing countries in Central America, the Caribbean and Africa, according to President Lula from Brazil. In Brazil thebiofuels allowed a 40% reduction of the dependance on fossil fuels; six million jobs were created and the deforestation was cut by half. A second-generation technology would allow about 100 countries to become biofuel producers, against the current 20.
EU, on the other hand, has agreed to slash its current tariffs (70% on imported ethanol) due to its 10% goal of renewable fuels that has to be met by 2020. Today, the EU uses 1.8% of biofuels to its entire fleet. Although imported biofuels will play an important role on this 10% goal, the Europeans are concerned about the susteinability of the production. They are willing to pay a premium, as long as the biofuels are certified that, e.g., no harvest has been burnt or no rain forest has been torn down.
I note a dissensus on their thoughts. Although everyone agrees on which challenges biofuels currently face, there is a huge difference on which part to attack first. While President Lula stresses his concerns about feeding the poor, EU leaders put a stonger emphasis on meeting environmental criteria. What we need is good balance of everything, assuring social and environmental standards, a thin layer of marketing, and pack everything to export.
Tags: 
Discussion
No comments for “EU and Brazil join forces over biofuels (The Guardian)”
Post a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.