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Brazil: A bio-energy superpower
By Mario Osava
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Nov. 4 (Tierramérica) —
Rising oil prices and the upcoming implementation of the Kyoto Protocol
on greenhouse gases, following the recent ratification by Russia, are
accelerating the process of turning Brazil into a world leader in “bio-energy.”
Exports of alcohol made from sugarcane are expected to increase from
270 million gallons last year to 650 million gallons this year —
this expansion trend continues independent of rising world oil prices.
There are many countries, like Japan, that are moving to blend ethanol
with gasoline, or increase the alcohol additives in fuel, as a means
towards curbing air pollution.
The implementation of the Kyoto Protocol, which sets goals for reducing
greenhouse gases responsible for climate change, will likely cause a
shift towards renewable energy sources.
The Russian Senate announced its ratification of the global treaty Oct.
27. Once it is enacted by the Russian president, the Kyoto Protocol
will enter into force, as it has finally achieved the required threshold
of countries: a total that produces at least 55 percent of the world’s
greenhouse gases.
In Brazil, renewable fuel is recuperating the popularity it had in the
1980s, and not just because of the lower price. There is a growing demand
for “bi-fuel” automobiles that can use gasoline, fuel alcohol
or any mix of the two. These cars were put on the market last year.
In 1985 and 1986, alcohol-fueled vehicles had achieved the incredible
proportion of 76 percent of all of Brazil’s car production. But
supply and price problems eroded the Proalcohol program for fuel substitution
that had been launched during the petroleum crisis of 1973.
Output of alcohol-driven cars hit bottom in 1997 — just 0.06 percent
of total car production, according to Brazil’s National Association
of Automotive Manufacturers.
Since then there has been a gradual recovery, which was particularly
notable last year, with 84,173 alcohol-fueled cars, including the bi-fuel
vehicles, represented 4.6 percent of automotive production. This year
that portion is expected to be five times as big, as 253,817 such cars
were produced from January through September.
The possibility of using one fuel or another, along with the reasonable
price, contributes to public confidence in alcohol as a fuel in general.
It reduces the risk of shortages or sudden price hikes at service stations.
In addition, all gasoline in Brazil contains 20 to 25 percent anhydrous
alcohol, which reduces petroleum dependence and pollution. And work
is beginning on manufacturing crop spraying aircraft that run on ethanol.
The subsidized development of Proalcohol cost some $40 billion, but
the country has “already recovered those expenses” and is
now seeing its fruits, including the continued development of related
technology, Osvaldo Stella Martins, an expert with the National Center
for Biomass Research, told Tierramérica.
The sugarcane needed to make Brazil the world leader in sugar and alcohol
production also generates enormous quantities of waste pulp, a source
of energy that feeds the electricity market as well as running the sugar
mills and distilleries.
Now the new biodiesel program is motivating researchers and business
leaders. The government announced that it will authorize its addition
to regular diesel fuel in November, in a proportion of two percent and
increasing to five percent over the next few years.
Beyond reducing the need to import fuel and curbing environmentally
harmful emissions, the program is intended to be socially inclusive,
generating hundreds of thousands of jobs and promoting family farming
in impoverished areas, says Science and Technology Minister Eduardo
Campos.
It is also a government priority to promote production of fuel using
the castor bean (Ricinus communis) in the Brazilian northeast, the country’s
poorest region. But biodiesel made from castor beans must be more heavily
subsidized, as it costs three times more than petroleum, said Stella,
a mechanical engineer who holds a doctorate in ecology and natural resources.
There is a high global demand for castor oil, the raw material for hundreds
of chemical, medicinal and cosmetic products, and it would be more logical
to promote its production as an industrial input, instead of using it
for biodiesel and burdening society with the cost of subsidies in order
to “resolve a problem for Petrobras,” the giant state-run
oil company, he said.
The problem is that Petrobras must produce diesel without sulfur, for
environmental protection reasons, and it would be better to substitute
that lubricant with biodiesel, transferring costs to society, explained
the expert.
Studies are under way for producing biodiesel using other plant sources,
and even from the vegetable oil waste in cities, such as from food processing
and restaurant cooking.
The alternative that most excites Stella and forestry engineer Laercio
Couto, president of the National Network for Biomass Energy, is to make
use of agricultural and forestry waste.
Lumber production uses 45 percent of the tree, leaving “incredible”
biomass sources, Couto told Tierramérica.
The lumber waste is packed into cylinders to reduce volume and humidity,
and to facilitate transport, and exports to Europe are beginning. But
last year just 40,000 tons were sold, while the demand reaches two million
tons, the engineer added.
Brazil, with its land, sun, and water resources, is a major producer
of biomass, and the process of photosynthesis makes the South American
country an energy superpower, according to José Bautista Vidal,
the “father” of Proalcohol.
However, the great distances and insufficient infrastructure that make
transportation expensive continue to create obstacles in the energy
business beyond local production and use, Couto said.
Colorado votes for renewable energy
By Jesse Broehl
Denver, Colorado, Nov. 3 — In a major victory for renewable
energy advocates in Colorado, voters in the state approved Amendment
37 on the Nov. 2 election day. This is the first time in the nation’s
history that a renewable energy portfolio standard was put directly
before voters rather than processed through a state’s legislature.
The initiative requires the state’s largest utilities to obtain
3 percent of their electricity from renewable energy resources by 2007
and 10 percent by 2015 as well as establish a standard net metering
system for homeowners and ranchers with small photovoltaic (PV) systems
to connect to the power grid. The measure also calls for 4 percent of
the mandated amount of renewable energy to come from solar resources.
According to the Associated Press, with 90 percent of precincts reporting,
912,008 voters, or 52 percent, had backed the proposal while 829,364,
or 48 percent, opposed it.
These close margins echo the long, hard road for a renewable energy
standard in Colorado. Legislation for a renewable portfolio standard
sponsored by Republican Lola Spradley failed to pass into law earlier
in 2004.
“Reducing our nation and our state’s reliance on foreign energy
is an issue that should cross all party lines,” Spradley said in
a statement.
It was the fourth time Colorado’s legislators had rejected RPS
legislation. Despite the sting of the legislative loss, proponents of
a renewable energy standard decided to ask voters directly through a
ballot initiative, where it ultimately found success.
The measure has faced consistent and strong resistance from electric
utility companies, particularly Xcel Energy. Facing the possibility
that voters could force the utility to use more renewable energy, Xcel
Energy mounted a full-scale attack campaign in the weeks prior to election
day.
While the federal government has done nothing to mandate national standards
for renewables, states have themselves been a major driving force behind
renewable energy, enacting their own mandates. Renewable energy industries
and advocates form across the nation have been keenly aware of this
progress and many eyes were on Colorado this election day.
“Noting that Colorado’s legislature has failed to act, Ballot
Initiative 37 affords the citizens of Colorado an alternative means
for moving the state’s economy towards a cleaner energy future,”
was the collective message from the Washington DC-based Sustainable
Energy Coalition, a 21-member group of business, environmental, and
energy policy members who work to support renewable energy at the national
level.
The organization noted that while Colorado is endowed with abundant
solar, wind, biomass, geothermal, and hydroelectric resources, the state
presently produces only 2 percent of its electricity from renewable
energy.
Already 16 other states have enacted renewable energy requirements for
their utilities and many require an even higher percentage of electrical
generation to be from renewable energy than envisioned by Initiative
37.
New Mexico, for example, requires 10 percent renewable electricity by
2011, four years ahead of the Colorado proposal. Nevada requires 15
percent renewable electricity by 2013. New York State recently required
that 25 percent of its electricity come from renewable sources by 2013.
The Sustainable Energy Coalition itself has called for a national renewable
energy standard directing that no less than 20 percent of the nation’s
electricity should be generated by renewable energy resources by 2020,
in addition to that already provided by hydropower.
Source: Renewable Energy Access
Beware the ‘silent forests,’
warns World Bank
By Sonny Inbaraj
Bangkok, Thailand, Nov 10 (IPS) — The threat that East
Asia’s rich biodiversity faces, with 95 percent of its forests
already lost because of uncontrolled logging and wildlife being decimated
at alarming rates, may well create what the World Bank calls “silent
forests,” completely devoid of animals.
In a report released Nov. 10, ahead of next week’s World Conservation
Congress to be held in the Thai capital between Nov. 17-25, the World
Bank pointed out that the region’s impressive economic growth
has brought about environmental degradation at alarming rates.
“Economic growth in the East Asia-Pacific has increased demand
for natural resources such as land for non-timber forest resources,”
said the Bank’s report entitled “Crouching Tiger, Hidden
Langur.”
“As a result, the region has lost 95 percent of its primary forests;
individual countries have lost 70 to 90 percent of their original
wilderness; and deforestation continues to accelerate the seemingly
inexorable fragmentation and loss of terrestrial and aquatic habitats,”
it pointed out.
East Asian economic growth is expected to reach more than seven percent
in 2004 but has already peaked in the first half of the year, the
World Bank said Nov. 9 in its latest twice-yearly update on the region.
In an upbeat assessment of economic progress and the spread of democracy
since the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, the Bank said that developing
East Asian economies should grow at nearly 8 percent this year --
more than a percentage point higher that the rate predicted a year
ago.
“The region’s dynamism is creating more personal wealth
and higher standards of living than ever before; but economic growth
has, as elsewhere, brought about environmental degradation,”
said the Bank’s biodiversity report.
As a result of this, the Bank warned, the region is failing to strike
a balance between economic growth and environmental protection.
But what also worries the international financial institution is that
the East Asia-Pacific is also a key supplier to the international
wildlife market, both legal and illegal -- besides being a centre
for the consumption of wildlife derivates ranging from tiger bone
medicines to shark fin cuisine.
“Our concern is that the wildlife trade undermines the hundreds
of millions of dollars we have poured into conservation,” said
Tony Whitten, the World Bank’s senior biodiversity specialist
for East Asia and Pacific.
“This illicit trade certainly empties forests. There’s the
‘silent forest’ syndrome that we have to deal with -- which
means that even if we conserve forests, there might not be wildlife
in them if we don’t put a handle on the illegal wildlife trade,”
added Whitten.
Over the 1999-2004 period, the World Bank has committed a total of
300 million US dollars in new funds to biodiversity in the region.
Of this investment, 82 percent has been used to support projects focusing
exclusively on biodiversity conservation, while 18 percent are for
raising awareness among the general public - with the Bank working
with “non-traditional allies.”
In 1995, the World Bank and the World Conservation Union, known by
its acronym IUCN, signed an aide memoiré to develop a wide
range of collaborative work at both the policy and operational levels.
World Bank-IUCN joint work now stretches all over the world from staff
exchanges and joint programs to advisory groups.
Created in 1948, the IUCN brings together 81 states, 114 government
agencies, 800 plus non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and some
10,000 scientists and experts from 181 countries.
Up to 3,500 environmentalists, scientists, businessmen and government
officials are expected to attend the World Conservation Congress --
which is being billed as the largest conservation meeting ever.
Also invited are corporate heavyweights Shell and BP, said Denise
Jeanmonod, the communications coordinator of IUCN Asia.
“This would put the environmental performance of big business
in the spotlight,” she said.
Nonetheless the IUCN Congress is not without controversy.
Asian forests are being destroyed at a staggering rate and the finger
of blame is now pointing at China -- a party to the IUCN. Not satisfied
with legal imports, China’s hunger for wood has also caused a
boom in illegal logging.
“One cause for declining forest cover regionally is increased
demand from China,” said the World Bank’s biodiversity report.
“Already a net wood importer, China is turning increasingly to
international sources of raw material -- a process that continues,
and one which threatens the integrity of forests through the East
Asia-Pacific,” added the Bank.
China’s entry to the World Trade Organization has also driven
tariffs for most timber imports down to zero, fueling imports as well
as a rapidly expanding export industry in everything from pulp and
paper to furniture and decorations, most of it destined to the United
States and the European Union.
Conservationists are even more concerned about the destruction of
tropical rain forests in South-east Asia, whose rich biodiversity
make them the “lungs of the earth.”
The lowland forests of Indonesia, for example, are being systematically
destroyed by international companies and illegal loggers supported
by corrupt military and provincial government officials, adds the
World Bank report.
“Indonesia is the world’s most biologically diverse country.
However, 2.5 - 5 million acres of forest are still being lost annually
to illegal logging and encroachment, and the many and varied attempts
to stem this hemorrhage to any significant extent have so far failed,”
stated the World Bank report.
Britain and Germany confront global
warming
By Sanjay Suri
London, England, Nov 8 (IPS) — A new alliance between
Britain and Germany to contain global warming is looking to joint
ventures around the world to clean up the air.
The alliance is emerging as the beginning of an Anglo-German environment-friendly
powerhouse that will seek to take a big chunk of a rapidly growing
market.
The new alliance formed at the British embassy in Berlin last week
declared it will “exploit a window of opportunity” opening
up by way of new environment-friendly power plants and energy systems.
The alliance declared that about $16 trillion are due to be invested
in energy over the coming years (a trillion is a million million).
“The delegates agreed that Britain and Germany should work to
exploit this current window of opportunity to lead a cost effective
fight against climate change.”
Britain and Germany are responsible for 97 percent of emissions reductions
in the European Union (EU), the alliance claims. Emissions from the
burning of fossil fuels such as oil and coal lead to emissions of
greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane. These are believed
to lead to global warming that disrupts natural climate patterns.
The alliance declared that it was vital that new investment is “directed
to more energy efficient forms of generation including cleaner coal,
combined head and power plants and renewables such as wind, wave and
solar power.”
Germany has highly developed wind and solar power technology and Britain
has made a breakthrough in using waves to generate power. The two
countries will now work together to export clean technology around
the world.
The alliance pits the two countries directly against France which
has almost completely shunned wind, solar and wave technology. For
France renewable energy means nuclear power, and the French claim
to green energy technology is to export its nuclear knowhow.
The Anglo-German alliance will seek to build technology for relatively
smaller local power needs but which could add up to a huge market.
Leading industrialists, scientists and businessmen from both countries
are being brought into the alliance, which was formally launched by
Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. The launch by the Queen was symbolic;
British royalty has a strong German ancestry.
Britain’s chief scientific advisor, David King, announced the
need for a new alliance. He said in a press statement that ‘’2004
has been an extraordinary year. We have had some of the worst weather-related
natural disasters on record, and we have also had the positive outcome
of the Kyoto protocol with Russians ratifying. This conference takes
these issues forward and forges a new agenda for climate action that
will help lead us to a more stable and secure future in both the developed
and the developing world.”
This “window of opportunity” will open up also to a system
of “climate- friendly finance,” the alliance said in a statement
Nov. 4. “Germany and Britain, both with key financial centres
such as the City of London (the financial district of London) and
Frankfurt, could play a pivotal role in bringing European and global
pension funds, actuaries and insurers on board.”
Both countries have already pledged a reduction in emissions that
go far ahead of the requirements of the Kyoto Protocol, agreed in
Kyoto in Japan in 1997. Under the protocol industrialized countries
would be bound to reduce emission of greenhouse gases by at least
5 percent related to 1990 levels in the first action period 2008-2012.
Ratification by Russia has meant that the protocol now comes into
force for signatory countries.
Britain has proposed a 60 percent reduction by 2050 and Germany 40
percent reduction by 2020.
The alliance will seek to sell knowhow arising from present practices.
London and Berlin cities will share experiences and plans to fight
global warming ‘’which may become blueprints for cities
and local authorities elsewhere,” the alliance statement says.
Berlin claims to have reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent
since 1990 and plans to cut back by a further 40 percent. London plans
to reduce emissions 20 percent by 2010. Under the agreement the two
cities will exchange notes on meeting these targets.
The two countries plan to launch a Europe-wide awareness campaign
on clean energy. The campaign will seek to raise awareness, and no
doubt also to bring in new business.
Global warming ‘will redraw map
of world’
By Geoffrey Lean
Nov. 7 — Maps of the world will have to be redrawn, as
global warming melts the Greenland ice cap, inundating coasts and
major cities, the British government’s chief scientific adviser
warned last week.
Sir David King told ministers, senior officials and leaders of industry
at a top-level conference on climate change in Berlin that there was
a “real risk” the ice sheet would not survive and that “humanity
had better be prepared for a complete realignment of the coastal zones,
where most of the world’s major cities are sited.”
He added that parts of the ice sheet had already retreated by up to
30 feet in the past few years, compared to 10 feet between 1890 and
1950.
Other experts at the conference, which was opened by the Queen of
England to signal her concern about climate change, confirmed that
the ice cap, which contains a sixth of the world’s fresh water,
was already beginning to melt.
If the entire ice cap disappeared, sea levels around the world would
rise by 20 feet, drowning much of London, New York, Tokyo, Bombay,
Calcutta and other large cities.
Sir John Houghton, a former head of the Meteorological Office and
the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, and one of the world’s
leading experts on global warming, told The Independent on Nov. 7:
“We are getting almost to the point of irreversible meltdown,
and will pass it soon if we are not careful.”
Professor Jacqueline McGlade, chief executive of the European Environment
Agency, who has just returned from Greenland, added: “You see
it happening before your very eyes. I stood by a chasm which, five
years ago, had been filled with ice.”
Delegates to the conference agreed that the threat from climate change
was “real, serious and urgent” and that it could have “a
devastating impact on human society and the natural environment.”
And they called on the world to take action that would “go much
further than the modest provisions of the Kyoto Protocol,” which
will come into effect early next year now that Russia has finalized
its ratification process.
Dr Klaus Töpfer, the executive director of the United Nations
Environment Program, who chaired the conference, said: “Climate
change is happening and it is increasing in speed. Leadership is urgently
needed to take the fight against its devastating impacts forward.”
Source: Independent (UK)
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