Brazil maintains its commitment to biofuels to achieve the energy transition

Brazil maintains its commitment to the production and use of biofuels as part “fundamental” in the energy transition process in which the country has engaged, indicated two Government entities that are part of the process.

“In addition to preserving the jungles and the Pantanal, a safe energy transition also occurs through biofuels”Floriano Pesaro, director of Corporate Management of the investment and export promotion agency ApexBrasil, told EFE.

The director of the state agency, who participated this week in the I Latin American Green Economy Forum organized by the EFE Agency in São Paulo, assured that “Ethanol, for example, is renewable and there is no doubt about it, because it feeds an enormous production chain.”

On the same issue, Clenio Pillon, executive director of Research and Innovation of the Brazilian state agricultural research company (Embrapa), highlighted the South American country’s progress in biofuels in recent decades.

“We have a very great command of technology and production process, with sugar cane for ethanol and with biomass, frying waste and vegetable oils for biodiesel,” Pillon, who was also a speaker at the environmental forum, told EFE.

For the researcher, Brazil needs “expand that set of raw materials not only for green fuels but also as a source for other clean energies.” The advance of the “green fuels”Pillon added, should also reach the airline sector in the short term.

“We have animal fat and different matrices of Brazilian biodiversity that can provide a greater supply of bioinputs with environmental gains”highlighted the specialist.

The “circular economy”with “logistical feasibility”will allow a “agenda for green, second-generation fuels, with favorable advantages and a multifunctional role for agriculture”which will have a mission beyond “food security”complete.

In that sense, Pesaro agreed that Brazil, in addition to its leadership in biofuels, is “a country with advantages from the point of view of a clean energy matrix, with hydroelectric, solar and wind and carbon credit generation.”

The ApexBrasil, cited the director, seeks “privileging companies that fit into the perspective of the ISG (general satisfaction index) and respect the legislation in terms of reverse logistics, the least generation of pollution.”

“We are going to encourage SMEs, stimulate and privilege exports and attract more investments”which will be “deconcentrated” from the South and Southeast regions, the richest in the country, and taken to the North and Northeast, Pesaro detailed.

However, the agency representative considered that “Taking care of the environment is not enough” and in the energy transition process “fair” must be considered “race and gender inequality” and access to basic services such as “education and health”.

“Brazil is the great alternative to produce well, cheaply and reducing gas emissions, because it has a clean energy matrix”Clarissa Alves Furtado, ApexBrasil Competitiveness Manager, also commented to EFE.

According to Furtado, this process requires “intelligence and data collection”, in a “joint” of government agencies, the private sector, universities and civil society to address the “needs of international markets”.

The forum brought together government entities, the private sector, academics and representatives of civil society and is sponsored by ApexBrasil and the company AkzoNobel; and had the support of the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Brazil, Iberia and Telefónica.