Brazil's president sees biofuels to offer opportunity

05-07-07

Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva defended biofuels and growing concerns about their drawbacks, saying they offer an "opportunity" to lift developing countries out of poverty. The Brazilian leader said that the success his country's booming biofuels industry has enjoyed could be reproduced in some of the poorest parts of the world, helping to alleviate poverty.
"I am convinced we can repeat these results in any poor and developing country in Africa, Central America and in the Caribbean," Lula told an international conference on biofuels in Brussels.

While ensuring energy security and offering an alternative to oil, biofuels represented a "historic opportunity" to build "a more prosperous, unified and fair world," Lula said. Brazil, which has emerged as the leading producer of ethanol through its vast resources of sugarcane, produced in 2005 13 mm tons of ethanol, creating some 4.5 mm jobs directly or indirectly, according to Lula.
"Everyone from the smallest and most humble country in the world and the smallest and most humble human being living in the world (can) dig a little hole... and plant an oil plant that could produce energy," he said. "You can't look at this in terms of profit," he added. "Look at this in terms of giving a chance to those that didn't have a chance in the 20th century and cannot afford to lose the 21st century either."

The biofuel industry has enjoyed an unprecedented investment boom in recent years amid growing interest in finding alternatives to oil as petrol prices soar and concerns grow about global climate warming. But although biofuels have emerged as one of the most viable alternatives to oil, concerns are also growing about drawbacks ranging from forests being used for farmland to the impact on food prices.
Biofuels are renewable and environmentally-friendlier than fossils but not completely clean. Energy has to be used to harvest and process the biomass, and this makes biofuels carbon-positive, not carbon-neutral.

"This clean, renewable source of energy has the potential to help us respond to the dual climate change/energy security challenges we face," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said. "But we cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the potential drawbacks," she added.
Ferrero-Waldner said that the drawbacks of fuels made from biomass -- which the Commission maintains is set to quadruple in coming years -- had to be carefully monitored.
"Poorly managed production can increase rather than decrease greenhouse gas emissions," she said. "We know about the negative effects on soil protection, water management, bio-diversity, air protection and the world's forests. Clearly, production must be compatible with our overall environmental objectives."

In addition to the environmental impact, the Food and Agriculture Organization warned that rising reliance on biofuels over the next decade threatened to drive up food prices in poor countries, where they are already facing upward pressure from consumer demand.
The FAO, in a joint report with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, said that between now and 2016 substantial amounts of maize in the United States, wheat and rapeseed in the European Union and sugar in Brazil would be needed for ethanol and bio-diesel production.
 

Source: Prensa Latina