19 November, 2008

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SAO PAULO (AFP)-The bioenergy and the renewable fuels open the door to a new time for the humanity, augured this Tuesday diverse participants in the International Conference on Biofuels that is carried out in Sao Paulo.Â

With the development and the expansion of the ethanol and the biodiesel “I believe that we are in a paradigm change, in a time change for the humanity”, expressed this Tuesday the mexican Alicia Bárcena, executive secretary of the United Nation’s Cepal (Comisión Económica para América Latina ). After the era of the fossil fuels, now “it is the era of the biomass, with the humanity developing the triptych of biodiversity, biotechnology and biofuels”, Bárcena affirmed. Â

The president of the Worldwatch Institute, the American Christopher Flavin, meanwhile, during the debate on the climatic matter, proclaimed that a deep change in the world energy matrix is necessary in order to reduce the emissions of hothouse effect gases.Â
“This is a fantastic opportunity to reinvent the agriculture, the reforestation techniques, to create a new industry, new employments”, he said, and assured that “Brazil should assume with India and China a leadership role in this process”. “Brazil already possesses a strong industry in biofuels and it can show, with its experience, the path, to the latinamerican countries, but it also has conditions to become a leader in other sources of renewable energy as the eolic and solar”, Flavin pointed out.Â

The brazilian Fabio Feldmann, founder of SOS Mata Atlántica, argued that the current financial crisis is an opportunity to “the review the world economy architecture, but also to include in the calendar the investments in renewable energy so that the countries can combat the global heating.”Â

The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations ), noticed in a document that “the impact of the biofuels in the emissions of hothouse effect gases, varies in function of the raw material used, the local, the agricultural practices and the conversion technology.”Â

“The most important impact is the change in the use of the land, for example, through the deforestation. For that reason the importance for the biofuels production to obey criterias that guarantee its environmental sustainability”, added the document of FAO distributed in the conference.Â

On the other hand, “the reduction of emission of hothouse eefect gases thanks to the use of the biofuels represents significant variations. The biggest reductions are observed with the sugarcane ethanol produced in Brazil and the biofuels of second generation”, it highlighted. The FAO concluded, about this that, “the sugarcane ethanol is also among the biofuels with most energy efficiency, that is to say that fewer consume energy for its production.”Â

Brazil, second world maker of ethanol that extracts it from the sugarcane (it produced 18.000 million liters and exported 3.530 million liters in 2007), and United States that makes it starting from the corn, are the world’s main producers of that biofuel.Â

Officially it is predicted that in 2011 Brazil will increase a 73%Â the export of ethanol (to reach 6.100 million liters) and the internal consumption in a 50%. The export of 2008 should get to the 4.170 millions liters (+18%) and the internal consumption of ethanol this year should be of 18.760 million liters.

Source: AFP

This article is dated Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 7:42 pm under , Asociación Argentina de Biocombustibles e Hidrogeno, Conicet, Foro Global de Bioenergia 2007, Paul Anderson.
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