How the Mercosur Deal’s Ethanol Boost Contradicts EU Green Promises

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November 12, 2021

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by Audrey Changoe (Friends of the Earth Europe/EurActiv) While the EU maintains that ethanol has a role to play in Europe’s shift to clean transport, the production of ethanol is damaging the environment and hurting local communities in South America, argues Audrey Changoe.

Audrey Changoe is a trade campaigner with Friends of the Earth Europe, a Brussels-based environmental network.

The EU likes to portray itself as a global leader in combatting the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse. Presenting biofuels, such as ethanol, as the silver bullet to reach sustainability targets comes in handy.

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Take the EU-Mercosur free trade deal for example: a deal with Paraguay, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil. The European Commission is steadfastly trying to get this agreement signed off, which would significantly increase the trade in agricultural products, including beef, soy and ethanol, commodities that are responsible for destroying important South American ecosystems.

Neither record-breaking levels of deforestation and forest fires nor unprecedented assaults against indigenous leaders and communities in Brazil could discourage trade commissioner Dombrovskis and consorts from rooting for the agreement.

Ethanol, the European green fuel?

The EU-Mercosur deal will lead to a six-fold increase of sugarcane-based ethanol exports to the EU (650,000 tons), to meet Europe’s ‘green’ transport fuel targets and to be used by the bioplastics and biochemical industries.

Under the European Green Deal, the EU’s renewable energy directive promotes the use of bioenergy and biofuels as part of a package to reach the EU’s climate targets. READ MORE

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