Brazil model may be exported as biofuel trade expands

Brazil’s experience can be considered a model in terms of biofuels development strategy, Lakshmi Puri, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) told the International Conference on Biofuels, held in Sao Paulo on November 17-21.

“We analysed the Brazilian model so as to see in which countries it might be reproduced,” Puri told a discussion session on biofuels and the international market. “The use of biofuels as we imagine it is a win-win-win strategy: the environment wins, commerce wins and development wins too.” UNCTAD is seeking to help developing countries choose the correct model and make sure development is compatible with food security, she added.

Because reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions, income and job creation, particularly in rural areas, and energy security are the main drivers for a global biofuels market, sugarcane is recognised as the most competitive low-carbon source of energy, the conference was told. However, full deployment of biofuels depends on overcoming social, environmental and trade challenges.

This development should go hand in hand with increased global trade in biofuel commodities, as noted by Corrado Clini, Chair of the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) and Director General of the Italian Ministry for the Environment Land and Sea. The urgency for action on climate change should force reform of World Trade Organization (WTO) rules on biofuels, he told the gathering.

As for sustainability, Clini claimed that consensus must be reached on rules and standards in order for a global market to be built. “It takes a global movement for land to be used in a way that will reduce CO2 emissions. I hope that the European Union and Brazil will be able to create a common market in which to work,” he added. In any case, Europe will be forced to resort to imports to meet its goal for the use of biofuels by 2020 because domestic production will be insufficient to meet demand. Hence an international market seems inevitable.

The discussion in Sao Paulo also revealed how one of the trade challenges for bioenergy is to achieve, within the framework of the WTO, the classification of biofuels as environmental commodities. Trade in biofuels should be open – requiring the reduction of tariffs, taxes and technical barriers – and fair, through the elimination of agricultural subsidies and other non-tariff barriers. Under WTO rules, developing countries have policy space in supporting their infant industries. As such, this could be applicable in the development of their national biofuels programs, the session found.

More information about the discussions can be downloaded from the conference website.

 

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