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Biofuel Boom Sparks Environmental Fears |
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By Mario Osava*
Many
countries in Latin America seek to emulate Brazil's use of ethanol
and biodiesel. But environmentalists warn that intense deforestation
is often the result of the expansion of these otherwise more eco-friendly
fuels.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Sep 18 (Tierramérica) - The
use of biofuels is on the rise in Latin America and is feeding dreams
of abundance in countries like Argentina and Colombia. But the experience
of Brazil, a pioneer in this alternative energy, raises questions
about their potential negative environmental consequences.
With ethanol and biodiesel as a springboard, Brazil's President
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva aims to turn his country into an energy
superpower -- in contrast to the 1970s when the Brazilian economy
was thrashed by its dependence on oil imports and its dramatic price
hikes.
But environmentalists warn that although biofuels reduce emissions
of greenhouse gases (which lead to global climate change), they
could also trigger a massive expansion of the biofuel crops, pushing
the agricultural frontier deepr into the forests, destroying habitat
and biodiversity.
Alone for three decades in widespread use of ethanol, or ethyl alcohol,
to replace a portion of the gasoline in vehicles, Brazil developed
technologies and a sugarcane economy that ensure its absolute competetiveness
in exports, still limited by protectionist barriers and an unstable
international market. And this South American giant intends to fight
for the biodiesel market, where it lacks the same pioneering history.
Other countries in the region are trying to emulate the Brazilian
strategy. Colombia and Argentina stand out for strengthening legislation
to encourage development of biofuels.
A 2001 Colombian law stipulates that the country's gasoline must
have 10 percent ethanol in 2009, with gradual increases to 25 percent
in 15 to 20 years. A similar bill is being drafted for biofuel,
based on the African palm, from which 600,000 tons of oil are already
being produced yearly as food.
"Colombia could be third in production of biofuels, surpassed only
by the United States and Brazil, if production of palm oil for biodiesel
comes out favorably," David Cala, director of CORPODIB, a consortium
of businesses, university and technology centers involved in industry
development of biotechnology, told Tierramérica.
Exports could reach 10 million liters daily of alcohol from sugarcane
and beets, and three million tons a year of biodiesel -- two to
three times greater than domestic consumption -- in 15 to 20 years,
estimates Cala.
In Argentina, the Biofuels Act, approved in April, imposes a requirement
of five percent biodiesel or ethanol in petroleum derivatives beginning
in January 2010.
"That obligatory minimum, which could be more," requires 600,000
tons of biodiesel and 160,000 tons of ethanol annually for the domestic
market, which would absorb eight and three percent, respectively,
of national output of soybeans and maize, Miguel Almada, an economist
for the National Biofuels Program, told Tierramérica.
But furthermore, "in development is an export industry for ethanol
and biodiesel of around two million tons per year," he added.
These optimistic economic forecasts should, however, take into account
the environment variable. And Brazil's experience in this regard
can teach some lessons.
"It is worrisome that a new economic cycle based on biofuels would
trigger the expansion of monoculture crops and, consequently, deforestation,"
says Délcio Rodrigues, an energy expert with Vitae Civilis, a Brazilian
non-governmental organization that is active in fighting climate
change.
The sugarcane economy is not a good environmental model. In the
southeastern state of Sao Paulo, which produces 70 percent of Brazil's
alcholo, the companies generally do not obey the Forestry Code,
which requires nature preservation of 20 percent of rural properties.
Furthermore, the cane fields are burned to facilitate the harvest,
which creates serious local air pollution, said Rodrigues in a Tierramérica
interview.
Soy, the main raw material for biodiesel in Brazil, due to its massive
current production, "has already become one of the principal factors
behind deforestation of the Amazon and the Cerrado, a biome of savannahs
and scrub forests that covers the extensive central area of Brazil,"
said the expert.
Biodiesel began to be added to petroleum-based diesel in Brazil
at a proportion of two percent, and that will be increased to five
percent in 2013. The country has opted for H-BIO, a process of hydroconversion
developed by the state-run oil giant Petrobras, which adds up to
18 percent plant or animal oil in the petroleum refining process
to produce diesel.
Petrobras has already adapted three of its refineries, and plans
to begin production in December, seeking to save on imports of 256
million liters of diesel next year, and a billion liters by 2010.
Soybean oil will be the main input. H-BIO will not affect biodiesel
because they are complementary, say energy authorities.
Consumption of 840 million liters of biodiesel is forecast for 2007,
with a mix of two percent. The program was designed to favor family
farming for the production of castor oil, palm and other sources
of vegetable oils, with tax exemptions especially for Brazil's poorest
regions, in the northeast and north.
However, the plan involves small farmers only as simple suppliers
of oil-producing crops, without including them in the agro-industrial
process, in cooperatives that at least process the harvests for
the oils, said Rodrigues. Petrobras should assume "social responsibility",
he said, adding that pressure from European importers to respect
environmental standards could prevent some harm.
Studies by the ministries of agriculture and environment identified
-- in the Brazilian states that already have infrastructure to produce
alcohol -- 15 million hectares of degraded areas that would be appropriate
for agricultural expansion, Vania Araújo, from the Environment Ministry,
told Tierramérica.
This could triple the six million hectares currently planted with
sugarcane, theoretically without invading protected areas, but it
would require a good monitoring system coordinated with the state
governments, because the environmental authority is decentralized,
said the official.
* Mario Osava is an IPS correspondent. With
reporting by Marcela Valente in Argentina and Yadira Ferrer in Colombia. |
