Brazilian Biofuels Run into EU Obstacles
by Yans Felippe Geckler (IPS News) Brazil has begun a counterattack on the European Union’s measures for certifying crop-based fuels, which could lead to import barriers for this energy source coming from the South American giant.
…The EU’s certification requirements for ethanol and biodiesel are intended to ensure that their production and use represent a substantial reduction in emissions of greenhouse-effect gases, as compared to fossil fuels, and that they do not come from the encroachment of rainforests, wetlands or protected areas.
But “to associate the production of biofuels with the deforestation of the Amazon shows a lack of knowledge about the Brazilian reality, a protectionist move without scientific basis,” Robert Michael Boddey, an expert from the Brazilian government’s agricultural research agency EMBRAPA, said in a Tierramérica interview.
…The Europeans must understand that Brazil is not the Netherlands, Belgium or Portugal. “What we have in excess here is land,” he explained, “and although the cane fields are multiplying, and some crops have had to move to other areas, it doesn’t mean that deforestation is going to increase.”
…The proof is that the pace of Amazon deforestation has been slowing in Brazil since 2005, he said. READ MORE
Related posts:
- VIDEO: Brazilian Government Tackling Climate Change in Brazil
- Indirect Land Use: One Consideration Too Many in Biofuel Regulation
- DTN and The Guardian/Greenpeace Report on Brazil Deforestation
- Visualizing Sustainability: Developing Geospatial Technology to Address Sustainable Biofuel Production: Modeling Land Use and Land Use Change in Brazil
- Brazilian Alliance for Aviation Biofuels is Formed
