Friday, November 7, 2008

JC e-mail - Notícia enviado por um Amigo

 
  
Blog,
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Tuesday, November 4, 2008

FT.com / Video & Audio / Interactive graphics - Interactive feature: Ethanol boom and bust

FT.com / Video & Audio / Interactive graphics - Interactive feature: Ethanol boom and bust: "Interactive feature: Ethanol boom and bust

Published: October 21 2008 19:47 | Last updated: October 21 2008 19:47"

FT.com / In depth - Investors suffer as US ethanol boom dries up

FT.com / In depth - Investors suffer as US ethanol boom dries up: "Investors suffer as US ethanol boom dries up

By Kevin Allison in San Francisco and Stephanie Kirchgaessner in Washington

Published: October 21 2008 23:22 | Last updated: October 21 2008 23:22

Investors, such as Microsoft’s Bill Gates, are sitting on billions of dollars in losses after buying into the corn-based ethanol industry that George W. Bush embraced as the ans wer to US energy woes.

Six of the biggest publicly traded US ethanol producers have lost more than $8.7bn in market value since the peak of the boom in mid-2006 and the beginning of this month, according to an analysis by the Financial Times. The boom followed a 2005 law requiring refiners to mix billions of gallons of the biofuel with petrol."

Monday, November 3, 2008

Re: California biofuels mandates go to court - Tesoro says GHG emissions too high

In my view, this lawsuit stems directly from a lawmaking flaw based on the now-outdated assumption (circa 2006) that all ethanol causes less life cycle GHG emissions than all petroleum products. Tesoro is correct to point out that since this is no longer thought to be true, a volumetric blending mandate no longer makes sense from the perspective of climate mitigation . 

In theory the volumetric mandates could still serve other purposes such as to prevent water pollution or to reduce dependence on petroleum. In practice these mandates directly conflict with the LCFS.  I'm not sure the full extent of what's motivating Tesoro's action, but I can see how as a refiner, it would be untenable to be required to blend a certain percentage of ethanol, but the only cheaply/freely available ethanol causes more emissions than the gasoline/MTBE it's replacing, yet the LCFS requires reduced carbon intensity of Tesoro's fuel.

This isn't just a California issue.   British Columbia, Ontario and the EU have (or may have) volumetric/percentage blending mandates underlying LCFS.  These mandates also are vestiges of the assumption that all ethanol is greener than BAU.  Come to think of it, there may also be conflicts between the LCFS and the volumetric biofuels mandates under US EISA. If that's so, numerous other states might eventually be affected too.




Re: California biofuels mandates go to court - Tesoro says GHG emissions too high

Correction: I guess the action is comparing ethanol not only to oxygenates, but also to gasoline.



Tesoro's court action seeks to prevent enforcement of the ethanol blending mandate in the California Reformulated Gas Regulation. They argue that since the life cycle GHG emissions of most ethanol is greater than the petroleum oxygenates it replaces and it doesn't satisfy the mandate's own requirement for "improve[d]... emissions and air quality benefits".

source: http://ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=5004


California biofuels mandates go to court - Tesoro says GHG emissions too high

Tesoro's court action seeks to prevent enforcement of the ethanol blending mandate in the California Reformulated Gas Regulation.  They argue that since the life cycle GHG emissions  of most ethanol is greater than the petroleum oxygenates it replaces and it doesn't satisfy the mandate's own requirement for "improve[d]... emissions and air quality benefits".

source: http://ethanolproducer.com/article.jsp?article_id=5004


Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Fwd: EU biofuels regulatory science





EU biofuel data change angers environmentalists

Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:58pm GMT,
Reuters
 
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By Pete Harrison

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European biofuels could receive a boost from a change in the way the European Union calculates their impact on the environment, a document shows, angering environmentalists who think they do more harm than good.

The European Council document seen by Reuters on Wednesday also annoyed European biodiesel producers who see a bias toward bioethanol.

New figures on how biofuels can help cut greenhouse gas emissions in the fight against climate change follow swiftly after the European Parliament proposed clamping down on their use, fearing negative side effects such as deforestation.

The EU's final stance will be decided in negotiations in coming weeks between the European Parliament and member states, who are discussing the new data this week.

"The timing and lack of transparency surrounding these new figures raises serious questions about how the biofuel lobby has been able to influence the debate," said Nusa Urbancic of environment group T&E.

The European Union's executive has proposed that 10 percent of all road transport fuel comes from renewable sources by 2020, as it seeks to heed U.N. warnings that climate change will bring more extreme weather and rising sea levels.

Much of that 10 percent would come from biofuels, creating a huge potential market that is coveted by exporters such as Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as EU farming nations.

But environmentalists charge that biofuels made from grains and oilseeds have pushed up food prices and forced subsistence farmers to expand agricultural land by hacking into rainforests and draining wetlands.

DEFORESTATION

The European Parliament has responded by agreeing to limit fuels from food such as Brazilian sugar to 6 percent of EU fuel.

It has demanded that from the outset biofuels cut greenhouse gas emissions by 45 percent compared to petrol and diesel, an increase on the 35 percent saving originally proposed by the European Commission, which would have ruled out some EU biofuels.

Member states are now considering reclassifying European biofuels to give new values for the greenhouse gas savings they can achieve, according to the European Council document.

Among the new figures, sugar beet ethanol is given a new greenhouse gas saving of 52 percent, up from 35 percent in the European Commission's initial calculations, bringing it back into line with parliament's recommendation.

"This has been done without any transparency," said a spokeswoman for European Biodiesel Board. "Maybe this can be used as a starting point, but in no way can this be used in the longer term without more scientific work and input from biofuels producers."

T&E's Urbancic said the figures appeared to ignore the damage biofuels can cause by using vegetable oils that would otherwise have been used in foods -- thereby creating fresh demand that encourages farmers to expand farmland into forests.

"The Commission and Council are still ignoring the absolutely critical issue of indirect land use change," she said. "They are being selective about the science they take on board."

(Reporting by Pete Harrison, Editing by Peter Blackburn)



Thursday, October 16, 2008

Dupont exec. discusses ILUC

10/09/2008 -- E&ETV: "Later this month, U.S. EPA is expected to release a proposed rulemaking for implementing the lifecycle analysis requirements for biofuels under the renewable fuels standard. Estimating the emissions generated through the production of biofuels has been controversial, particularly with respect to how land-use changes affect emissions. During today's OnPoint, Jack Huttner, vice president of Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol, gives the biofuels industry's take on how EPA should proceed with the rulemaking. Huttner discusses how the inclusion of indirect land-use emissions could influence his industry's ability to meet the renewable fuels standard."

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

kyoto-wto-biofuels-climate regulation

a couple of relevant links that don't fully answer what climate aspects of biofuels can and cannot be regulated in the eyes of the WTO.  Under Kyoto, it's tough to regulate LUC according to Wetlands International:

http://news.mongabay.com/2007/1205-palm_oil_peatlands.html

Sunday, October 12, 2008

Ag. and Climate Change - New article from Royal Society

Can anyone access this?



Greenhouse gas mitigation in agriculture

IssueVolume 363, Number 1492 / February 27, 2008
Editor(s) Chris Pollock
Jules Pretty
Ian Crute
Chris Leaver
Howard Dalton
Pages789-813
Issue TitleTheme Issue ‘Sustainable agriculture II’ compiled by Chris Pollock, Jules Pretty, Ian Crute, Chris Leaver and Howard Dalton
DOI10.1098/rstb.2007.2184

Authors

1School of Biological Sciences, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen AB24 3UU, UK
2Carbosur, Constituyente 1467/1202, Montevideo 11100, Uruguay
3Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, People's Republic of China
4University of Maiduguri, Maiduguri, Borno State 1069, Nigeria
5 Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Research Centre, Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada T1J 4B1
6Institute of Economic Growth, University Enclave, Delhi 110 007, India
7Department of Agricultural Economics, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
8NREL, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA
9School of Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
10Department of Agronomy, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506, USA
11CSIR Division of Water, Environment and Forest Technology, Pretoria 0001, Republic of South Africa
12 All-Russian Institute of Agricultural Meteorology, Obninsk, Kaluga Region 249020, Russia
13 CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems, GPO Box 284, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia
14College of Resources and Environment Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing 210095, People's Republic of China
15 Pryanishnikov All-Russian Institute of Agrochemistry (VNIIA), 127550 Moscow, Russia
16Departments of Geosciences and Economics, Hamburg University, 20146 Hamburg, Germany
17The Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Monkut's University of Technology, Thonburi, Bangmod, Bangkok 10140, Thailand

Abstract

Agricultural lands occupy 37% of the earth's land surface. Agriculture accounts for 52 and 84% of global anthropogenic methane and nitrous oxide emissions. Agricultural soils may also act as a sink or source for CO2, but the net flux is small. Many agricultural practices can potentially mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the most prominent of which are improved cropland and grazing land management and restoration of degraded lands and cultivated organic soils. Lower, but still significant mitigation potential is provided by water and rice management, set-aside, land use change and agroforestry, livestock management and manure management. The global technical mitigation potential from agriculture (excluding fossil fuel offsets from biomass) by 2030, considering all gases, is estimated to be approximately 5500–6000Mt CO2-eq.yr−1, with economic potentials of approximately 1500–1600, 2500–2700 and 4000–4300Mt CO2-eq.yr−1 at carbon prices of up to 20, up to 50 and up to 100 USt CO < sub > 2 < /sub > -eq. < sup > -1 < /sup > , respectively. In addition, GHG emissions could be reduced by substitution of fossil fuels for energy production by agricultural feedstocks (e.g. crop residues, dung and dedicated energy crops). The economic mitigation potential of biomass energy from agriculture is estimated to be 640, 2240 and 16 000Mt CO < sub > 2 < /sub > -eq.yr < sup > -1 < /sup > at 0–20, 0–50 and 0–100 US t CO2-eq.−1, respectively.

Keywords
greenhouse gas, agriculture, mitigation, cropland management, grazing land, soil carbon
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Thursday, October 9, 2008

Amazônia deve ficar fora de área para plantio de cana-de-açú car, anuncia ministro Stephanes




Amazônia deve ficar fora de área para plantio de cana-de-açúcar, anuncia ministro Stephanes - 08/10/2008

Local: Brasília - DF
Fonte: Agência Senado
Link: http://www.senado.gov.br

O ministro da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, Reinhold Stephanes, anunciou há pouco a conclusão de estudo sobre o zoneamento agroecológico para produção de cana-de-açúcar, que ainda falta ser aprovado. Segundo informou, os biomas Amazônia e Pantanal não serão incluídos na área considerada apta para a produção da cana.

Stephanes participa de debate sobre a expansão das culturas para produção de biocombustíveis, em reunião na Comissão de Agricultura e Reforma Agrária (CRA), em conjunto com a Subcomissão dos Biocombustíveis.

Segundo Stephanes, ainda, o estudo que acaba de ser concluído aponta 65 milhões de hectares para plantio de cana, dos quais 37 milhões são áreas de pastagem degradadas. Ele também anunciou que a expansão da cana nos próximos oito anos será de cerca de cinco milhões de hectares.




Tuesday, October 7, 2008

climate registry reporting protocol

This document, by the The Climate Registry, details their definition of Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Tesco defends carbon label scheme - 21 May 2008 - BusinessGreen

Tesco defends carbon label scheme - 21 May 2008 - BusinessGreen: "Tesco has today launched an impassioned defence of its plans to put carbon labels on all its products, rejecting accusations that the labels confuse customers and insisting that its pilot scheme has already delivered significant tangible benefits."

New Sugarcanes to Deliver One-Two Energy Punch | BiobasedNews.com

New Sugarcanes to Deliver One-Two Energy Punch | BiobasedNews.com: "New Sugarcanes to Deliver One-Two Energy Punch
Oct 2, 2008 - By Jan Suszkiw, USDA-ARS

New varieties of sugarcane and other crops adapted to the U.S. Gulf Coast region are being developed for use in making ethanol as a cleaner-burning alternative to gasoline.

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists, in cooperation with the Louisiana Agricultural Experiment Station (LAES) and the American Sugar Cane League, USA (ASCL), have already released three new varieties of 'energy sugarcane.' They're called that because of their high stalk contents of sugar and fiber, which could eventually serve as complementary ethanol feedstocks.

Raw-sugar processors now burn the fiber to generate heat that powers stalk-crushing and sugar-crystallization processes, notes Edward Richard, who leads the ARS Sugarcane Research Unit in Houma, La. The extracted sucrose sugar is sold for consumption or converted into ethanol. However, Richard anticipates that biorefineries will use the fiber as well, once technologies for converting cellulose into ethanol become economically feasible."

Biofuels Sustainability Framework

"Scientists call for sustainability framework for U.S. biofuels
from Bioenergy pact between Europe and Africa by Biopact team
In his State of the Union Address on January 23, 2007, President Bush stated that, in order to substantially lower foreign oil imports, 'We must increase the supply of alternative fuels, by setting a mandatory fuels standard to require 35 billion gallons of renewable and alternative fuels in 2017.'

This mandate coupled with a $1.01 ethanol refiner subsidy promised in the 2008 Farm Bill and a $45 subsidy per ton of biomass production for growers are putting energy needs ahead of environmental sustainability, according to an article in the October 3, 2008 issue of Science Magazine entitled 'Sustainable Biofuels Redux'."

Monday, September 29, 2008

The Oil Drum | Terra Preta: Biochar And The MEGO Effect

A substantial review of popular and scholarly literature on terra preta.



The Oil Drum | Terra Preta: Biochar And The MEGO Effect: "Terra Preta ('black earth') was discovered by Dutch soil scientist Wim Sombroek in the 1950's, when he discovered pockets of rich, fertile soil amidst the Amazon rainforest (otherwise known for its poor, thin soils), which he documented in a 1966 book 'Amazon Soils'. Similar pockets have since been found in other sites in Ecuador and Peru, and also in Western Africa (Benin and Liberia) and the Savannas of South Africa. Carbon dating has shown them to date back between 1,780 and 2,260 years."

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

IDB Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard - IDB

IDB Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard - IDB: "�
IDB Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard


The Sustainable Energy and Climate Change Initiative (SECCI) and the Structured and Corporate Finance Department (SCF) of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) have created a Biofuels Sustainability Scorecard based on the sustainability criteria of the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels. The primary objective of the Scorecard is to encourage higher levels of sustainability in biofuels projects by providing a tool to think through the range of complex issues associated with biofuels. Since the scientific debate around these complex issues continues to evolve, the Scorecard should be seen as a work-in-process and will continue to be updated and revised as needed. Comments can be submitted at the end of filling out the Scorecard."

Monday, September 22, 2008

Op-Ed Columnist - The Establishment Lives! - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Establishment Lives! - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "Once, there was a financial elite in this country. During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, middle-aged men with names like Mellon and McCloy led Wall Street firms, corporate boards and white-shoe law firms and occasionally emerged to serve in government."

Op-Ed Columnist - The Establishment Lives! - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Establishment Lives! - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com: "Once, there was a financial elite in this country. During the first two-thirds of the 20th century, middle-aged men with names like Mellon and McCloy led Wall Street firms, corporate boards and white-shoe law firms and occasionally emerged to serve in government."

Newswise Science News | Cornell Gets $10 Million NSF Grant to Establish New Institute That Applies Computer Power to Sustainability

Newswise Science News | Cornell Gets $10 Million NSF Grant to Establish New Institute That Applies Computer Power to Sustainability: "Could a computer model help stabilize the tuna population? Can we compute how to transition to ethanol fuel without jeopardizing food production?

Those and other questions will be tackled by computer scientists, applied mathematicians, economists, biologists and environmental scientists affiliated with Cornell University’s new Institute for Computational Sustainability, being launched with a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

This program is designed to pursue “far-reaching research agendas that promise significant advances in the computing frontier and great benefit to society.”

Directed by Carla Gomes, Cornell professor of computing and information science, the institute will involve 14 Cornell faculty members along with scientists at Oregon State University, Howard University, Bowdoin College, the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Conservation Fund.
“Our vision is that computing and information science can – and should – play a key role in increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the way we manage and allocate our natural resources,” Gomes said."

Carbon News and Info > Climate change news > Energy & biofuels > EU, US diverging on biofuel policy?

Carbon News and Info > Climate change news > Energy & biofuels > EU, US diverging on biofuel policy?: "U, US diverging on biofuel policy?
Carbon News and Info > Climate change news > Energy & biofuels
Monday, 22 September 2008
The EU is set to ease biofuels targets in the face of global concerns over their inflationary impact on food prices, but there appears less chance of similar action in the US, no matter who’s in the White House.

The push to substitute green fuels for fossil fuels following the spike in oil prices in recent years and the imperatives of greenhouse emissions reduction for global warming have led to alarm over food prices. A jump in global food prices this year, has in part been attributed to competition for grain produce from biofuel makers. Question marks over the true environmental impacts of biofuel production and use have also arisen."

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Food prices threaten famed Argentine beef

Food prices threaten famed Argentine beef: "Food prices threaten famed Argentine beef
Nicholas Kusnetz, Associated Press
Sunday, September 14, 2008"

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

blog post: Is Corn Ethanol Lowering Gas Prices at the Pump?

http://www.cleantechblog.com/labels/ethanol.html
THURSDAY, MAY 15, 2008

Is Corn Ethanol Lowering Gas Prices at the Pump?
Despite providing the largest portion of alternative fuel in the US,
corn ethanol gets a lot of flack in the circles Cleantech Blog runs
in. The usual culprits go something like this: Corn ethanol is heavily
subsidized (yes it is). Corn ethanol does not reduce greenhouse gas
emissions (sort of, it really, really depends on your assumptions).
Corn ethanol contributes to the fertilizer driven "deadzone" in the
Gulf of Mexico (maybe, another complicated topic). Corn ethanol drives
up the price of food (a topic for another day).

But the main argument for supporting corn ethanol production has
always been about energy independence and fuel switching. Enabling a
new source of supply into our gasoline supply chain should in theory,
put some some downward pressure on gasoline prices at the pump, and
keep those energy dollars at home rather than send them overseas.

So the real question is, does it?

A very interesting paper was published at Iowa State
http://www.card.iastate.edu/publications/DBS/PDFFiles/08wp467.pdf
last month says yes, US ethanol production (almost all from corn) has
reduced gasoline prices at the pump $0.29-$0.40 per gallon, depending
on the region. Further, that the reduction came largely at the expense
of profits the refining industry would otherwise have made (indicating
perhaps that our ethanol production helped US consumers at the pump,
but did not impact world oil prices).

In their paper entitled The Impact of Ethanol Production on US and
Regional Gasoline Prices and on the Profitability of the US Oil
Refinery Industry, authors Xiaodong Xu and Dermot Hayes analyzed the
impact on price at the pump and refining profits of adding ethanol to
the US gasoline fleets by separating the impact of ethanol from the
major variables like gasoline imports, refining capacity, refining
utilization rates, hurricanes, market concentration in refining,
stocks, and seasonality, that generally affect gasoline price.

I find their $0.29 to $0.40 per gallon results a surprisingly large
number, indicating that ethanol production, while providing on average
well less than 5% of our gasoline supplies over their study period,
could have affected prices at the pump downward to the tune of greater
than 2 to 3 times that percentage level. That result is a huge win for
ethanol proponents, as it suggests that adding ethanol to the US fleet
has significantly benefited consumers (as one would expect), and also
suggests that the ethanol subsidy program (at about $0.40 per gallon
for 5% of the US gasoline production works out to around a 1 to 2 cent
effective tax on gasoline at current levels) may well have paid for
itself up to 20x over or more. The studies authors are careful not
extrapolate too much from the results, but they are certainly
interesting enough to warrant significant further research, and argue
a strong case for further corn ethanol support.

Neal Dikeman is a founding partner at Jane Capital Partners LLC, a
boutique merchant bank advising strategic investors and startups in
cleantech. He is founding contributor of Cleantech Blog, a
Contributing Editor to Alt Energy Stocks, Chairman of Cleantech.org,
and a blogger for CNET's Greentech blog.
Labels: cleantech, ethanol, gasoline prices, greentech

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Florida Deal for Everglades May Help Big Sugar - NYTimes.com

Florida Deal for Everglades May Help Big Sugar - NYTimes.com: "IN June, Gov. Charlie Crist announced that Florida would buy one of the state’s two big sugar enterprises, the United States Sugar Corporation. He billed the purchase as a “jump-start” in the environmental restoration of the Everglades, which cane growers are accused of polluting with fertilizer runoff."

Thursday, September 11, 2008

ONU propõe regras para a produção de etanol, Brasil contesta

]


Quarta-Feira, 10 de Setembro de 2008

ONU propõe regras para a produção de etanol

Entidade poupou Brasil, mas disse que biocombustível afetou preços
Jami
l Chade, GENEBRA

http://www.estadao.com.br/estadaodehoje/20080910/not_imp239036,0.php

Para tentar dar um ponto final à polêmica do etanol e seu impacto nos preços de alimentos, a ONU propõe a criação de uma série de critérios para que os biocombustíveis sejam produzidos, uma entidade para monitorar a questão e a revisão dos subsídios que existem para o setor nos países ricos. Hoje, o relator das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação, Olivier de Schutter, apresentará sua proposta aos países da entidade. Ele poupa o etanol do Brasil de críticas e garante que a alta de preços dos alimentos no mundo não foi gerada pelo País. Mas confirma que o biocombustível em outros mercados teve um impacto direto nos preços dos alimentos.

"A produção atual de etanol não é sustentável", afirmou. A proposta de Schutter é que a comunidade internacional chegue a um consenso sobre as regras para a produção do etanol e para o estabelecimento de políticas públicas. Os critérios propostos devem incluir não apenas questões de preços de alimentos, mas aspectos relacionados ao meio ambiente e condições de trabalho. Para ele, a exploração é "freqüente" nas grandes plantações da indústria de biocombustíveis.

"Se o modelo de produção do etanol continuar, violações aos direitos à alimentação se proliferarão." Sua proposta é que cada novo investimento passe por uma avaliação sobre o impacto ambiental que terá, sobre o efeito na concentração de terras, as condições de trabalho e o preço dos alimentos na região.

Os critérios de produção e investimento devem incluir garantias de acesso a alimentos, de que pequenos agricultores não serão expulsos de suas terras e casas, de remuneração justa aos trabalhadores e de proteção dos direitos de indígenas e mulheres. Segundo a proposta, "países devem ser encorajados a não permitir investimentos se esses critérios não forem seguidos".

O acesso aos mercados internacionais só poderia ocorrer se o etanol fosse produzido nessas bases. A ONU sugere até mesmo uma reforma nas leis da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) para permitir que a discriminação seja feita. Para monitorar o cumprimento dos critérios, a ONU sugere a criação de um fórum permanente.

Outra proposta é dar fim a todos os esquemas de subsídios e incentivos fiscais nos países ricos para a produção de etanol, o que estaria gerando uma distorção nos mercados e um comércio artificial.

AMEAÇA

A ON
U não nega que o avanço do etanol contribuiu para o aumento dos preços das commodities, "ameaçando o direito à alimentação". Um aumento de 1 ponto percentual no preço de alimentos provoca um aumento de 16 milhões de pessoas que sofrem de subnutrição.

De acordo com Schutter, o Fundo Monetário Internacional (FMI) concluiu que o etanol foi responsável por 70% da alta no preço do milho e 40% no da soja. Outro estudo aponta que o etanol americano teria sido o principal responsável pela alta dessas commodities em 2007 e 2008, que foi superior até ao aumento do preço do petróleo. Diante dessa constatação, o relator da ONU pede que metas de expansão do etanol nos Estados Unidos e Europa sejam abandonadas.

BRASIL

Para
Schutter, porém, seria "irresponsável condenar" todas as políticas de etanol no mundo. A produção para o consume local reduzir a dependência de petróleo não é a mesma da produção em grande escala para a exportação. Para ele, não se pode avaliar da mesma forma o etanol produzido de milho e o de cana. Cada um teria feito diferente para o meio ambiente e para a criação de empregos. No Brasil, 1 milhão de pessoas estariam empregada no setor. Mas a ONU alerta que a mesma situação pode não ocorrer em outros países.

"A produção de etanol do Brasil a partir da cana não contribuiu para a recente alta nos preços das commodities", afirmou. O motivo é que a produção de cana no País aumentou de forma significativa e as exportações de açúcar triplicaram desde 2000. O Brasil ainda passou a dominar 40% do mercado mundial de açúcar, ante o peso de 20% em 2000. Segundo os estudos, as exportações nacionais de açúcar foram suficientes para manter a alta na commodity relativamente modesta, salvo em 2005 e 2006, quando uma seca afetou a produção.

CONCENTRAÇÃO

Um t
emor da ONU é que haja uma corrida por terras para a produção do etanol, deixando um espaço menor para a produção de alimentos e encarecendo o preço das commodities. O etanol não seria o único problema. A compra de terras por estrangeiros para garantir seu abastecimento seria outro problema crítico.

O etanol, segundo a ONU, provoca uma concentração de terras e ameaça o acesso de indígenas e pequenos produtores às áreas agricultáveis. No total, 60 milhões de indígenas e povos autóctones seriam afetados diretamente pela produção do etanol no mundo.

O relatório ainda alerta que a produção de etanol em um país em desenvolvimento para abastecer um mercado rico não vai ajudar na geração de desenvolvimento e combate à pobreza. O Brasil, ao lado dos Estados Unidos, está promovendo projetos nesse estilo na América Central.


FRASES

Olivier Schutter
Relat
or da ONU para a Alimentação

"Se o modelo de produção do etanol continuar, violações
aos direitos à alimentação se proliferarão"

"Países devem ser encorajados a não permitir investimentos se os critérios não forem seguidos"

"A produção de etanol do Brasil a partir da cana não contribuiu para a recente alta nos preços das commodities"


Quinta-Feira, 11 de Setembro de 2008

Brasil contesta proposta da ONU
Itamaraty discorda de sugestão de regras para etanol

Jami
l Chade

http://www.estadao.com.br/estadaodehoje/20080911/not_imp239617,0.php

O Brasil questiona a proposta da ONU de criar diferentes categorias de etanol e critérios para que os biocombustíveis sejam exportados. O Estado informou ontem que a ONU iria sugerir a criação de requisitos para a produção de etanol e que as regras da Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC) fossem modificadas para permitir que apenas biocombustíveis produzidos conforme esses critérios pudessem ser exportados.

"O Brasil acredita que qualquer iniciativa relacionada com o comércio internacional de biocombustíveis seja não discriminatória, transparente e compatível com as regras da OMC", afirmou o Itamaraty em uma declaração lida diante do Conselho de Direitos Humanos da ONU, ontem.

O relator das Nações Unidas para a Alimentação, Olivier de Schutter, que apresentou a proposta, disse em uma coletiva de imprensa que ficou "surpreso" com a resposta do Brasil. "Não senti que o Brasil insistiu de forma suficiente no fato de que existem diferentes tipos de etanol no mundo", afirmou.

Para ele, a expansão dos biocombustíveis gerou parte da alta mundial dos preços de alimentos. Mas Schutter poupou o etanol brasileiro, alegando que sua produção não afetou o mercado da mesma forma que o etanol de milho americano.

O relator da ONU sugere a criação de um sistema para permitir que o etanol que não respeite o meio ambiente, os direitos trabalhistas e o acesso a alimentos seja banido do comércio internacional. Sua idéia é que o etanol que não cumprir esses requisitos em sua produção seja impedido de ser exportado. Para isso, sugere até uma mudança nas leis da OMC para permitir a discriminação. "O mundo precisa criar um código para essa expansão do etanol", defendeu ontem novamente.

Tanto ele como o governo brasileiro, porém, concordam que os subsídios americanos e europeus ao etanol estão distorcendo os mercados e agravando a fome. O Brasil, porém, alega que seria "injusto" colocar o etanol nacional no mesmo patamar de avaliação que o biocombustível dos demais países.