Biofuel production started to attract growing attention in the early 2000s because of mounting interest in the development of cleaner and renewable energy sources: biofuels were seen as part of the drive to move beyond the prevalent fossil-fuel paradigm. Brazil stands out in this context, with a sugarcane bioethanol programme that has delivered remarkable results along the entire production chain, from the improvement and development of higher yielding sugarcane varieties to the manufacture of engines that run on any gasoline and bioethanol blend.
President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva requested the National Bank of Economic and Social Development (BNDES) and the Center for Strategic Studies and Management (CGEE) to produce this book, principally in order to share the Brazilian experience with other nations, especially with developing countries located in tropical and subtropical areas. This motivation also underlay the contributions made by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
Biofuels have been in the spotlight recently owing to the surges in food and agricultural commodity prices for which biofuel production has often been held largely responsible. This book stresses the need to distinguish between different types of biofuel production systems before making assertions regarding their impact, not only on food prices, but also on food security and energy and environmental balances. Biofuels are not all the same in terms of impacts and benefits or even in terms of the origin of their raw inputs. The book makes the point that bioethanol made from sugarcane, for example, has little to
do with bioethanol made from wheat or maize. Sugarcane bioethanol is advocated as preferable to other biofuels both because of its food security impacts and because of environmental and energy aspects.

By: BNDES and CGEE

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