04/14/2006
Source: LOHAS Weekly Newsletter
Author: CleanEdge.com
Latin America is well positioned to become a
global leader in biofuels and renewable energy, and the United States and
other countries are keen to explore partnerships in the region to develop
them.
These ideas emerged from a plenary session on Competing in the Global
Economy at the World Economic Forum on Latin America, a two-day gathering of
leading figures in government, business, academia and civil society being
held in São Paulo, Brazil.
Luiz Fernando Furlan, Minister of Development, Industry and Trade of
Brazil, told the gathering that he recently received a delegation from
California and is now heading to Japan to discuss initiatives in the biofuel
realm. He has also held talks with South African officials to explore the
possibility of working with that country to offer biofuel to the rest of
Africa. There are at least 50 examples of new investments in sugarcane for
biofuel currently being implemented in Brazil, said Furlan. "There may also
be possibilities for joint ventures," he said.
"There is a very serious energy agenda that we can work on together,"
agreed E. Anthony Wayne, US Assistant Secretary of State for Economic and
Business Affairs. "We are embarking on a programme to diversify our energy
sources and change the mix," he said. "And Brazil is a leader in ethanol
production and deep sea drilling for petroleum." Argentinean natural gas is
also on the US radar screen, he said.
Argentina is working on ways to develop compressed natural gas as an
automobile fuel export, said Martín P. Redrado, President of the Central
Bank of Argentina. "We have had discussions in Northern Africa, India and
other places," he reported. His country is also offering incentives for
biofuel development from soybeans, he added.
A potential outgrowth of efforts in biofuel could be a broader expansion in biotechnology. "There are only three countries in the world that have decoded the genome of a living organism, and Brazil is one of them," said Furlan. "And we are rich in biodiversity."
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