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Happy and ready for holidays after COP21

Géraldine Kutas — posted 20/12/2015

Remember our opinion piece on Euractiv on a scenario outcome for COP21? Even better!

For once the agreement was more ambitious that originally thought. We feel privileged to have witnessed from the inside a historic moment, one which produced a deal signed by 195 countries committing to limit, in a joint effort, global warming to 1.5°C by the end of the century. Sure, the content of the deal could have been better, and the INDCs submitted more ambitious, but what matters most is that for the first time in history, world leaders agreed on a single direction for the future.

It was an exciting and exhausting week for us. We manned a stand in the UNFCCC area to meet people from all around the world who had one goal: to share their solutions to help reach the ‘intended nationally determined contributions’ of countries and mitigate global warming. As you can imagine, we were there to talk about sugarcane products and the way they can help reduce emissions, whether in transport or power generation.

The UNFCCC area was a real hive that never really slept during the climate negotiations. We met over 300 people on our stand, among which many delegates, including those from Brazil. Many of them had a go at our sugarcane quiz, took pictures on the stand, asked for more information about sugarcane ethanol’s potential in the transport sector. We are very proud to plant 500 trees in Brazil as a result of our agreement with the Green Initiative!

This is our last post of the year, and we wanted to say thanks to all of you for reading our blog in 2015. We’re looking forward to coming back next year; when we will sit down to discuss how we turn this agreement into reality.

On the Road Again

Géraldine Kutas — posted 17/12/2015

Dear readers,

I hope you’ve all had a great winter break and that you’re well rested for what promises to be an exciting year in terms of the transport and energy policy agenda.

Last year, the Energy Union and COP21 kept us not only incredibly busy but also very hopeful for the future. With this in mind, we know that 2016 is the year where we need to see things through – the ‘year of implementation’ as Commissioner Cañete has nicknamed it – and a number of big legislative dossiers are headed our way.

One such dossier is certainly the review of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED). In a nutshell, the Directive has to be reviewed in order to integrate the 27% target for 2030 which was decided at the October 2014 European Council. The debate around its review will open a number of discussions to address the shortcomings of the existing Directive. In case you missed it, a consultation on the review of the RED is currently open on the Commission’s website; you can access it here. So far, we are disappointed, as the Commission doesn’t intend to include a specific target for transport in the new RED. As we see it, a target represents the most effective tool to promote the participation of renewables in the fuel mix. In any case, we are committed to make constructive contributions to the debate. Watch this space for more on our concrete proposals.

Transport in general is going to be a major energy & climate topic for 2016. We expect a number of initiatives on it in the second half of the year. The proposal on the post-2020 effort-sharing decision (how to tackle non-ETS emissions) is expected in Q2-Q3 of 2016, and Transport (along with Buildings and Agriculture) is one of the targeted sectors. In Q3, we’re eager to see if the Communication on Decarbonisation of Transport will recognize the environmental benefits of using sustainable biofuels such as sugarcane ethanol.

Let’s not forget that New Year also means new Council Presidency! We really look forward to working with the Dutch, who have taken over from the Luxembourgish since January 1^st before handing it off to Slovakia in July. We were happy to see that the theme for the April informal Environment Council will be ‘innovative technology and policy for smart and green transport solutions’, and that biofuels will be taken into account in preparing the post-2020 transport policy, according to their programme.

Busy year ahead!

Stay tuned as we will keep you updated on all of the above.

Live from Paris!

Géraldine Kutas — posted 03/12/2015

Here we are! In Paris, following another round of negotiations on climate.

I hope an ambitious agreement can be found at the end of these two weeks and we are happy to provide our contribution to the debate. The sugarcane industry is committed as you can see from our pledges:

We pledge to maintain an average 90% GHG reduction for each litre of gasoline replaced by ethanol in Brazil.

Bioelectricity blog We aim at maximising the use of sugarcane residues to supply clean bioelectricity and biofuels.

Deforestation blogWe do not and never will engage in illegal deforestation activities.

You can come and see our stand, in the UNFCCC area (Blue Zone for the insiders), as of 7 December. We challenge you to answer a few questions on sugarcane. If you are right we will plant a tree in Brazil, with the help of The Green Initiative. You can get some training through our Twitter account @SugarcaneOrg or our website.

Outside the Blue Zone, you’ll have several other chances to hear about us, starting from Sunday 6 December at the “World Climate Summit”, where our very own Elizabeth Farina, UNICA’s CEO, will speak in an interactive panel discussion on bio products and biofuels.

Elizabeth will also speak at the “Sustainable Land Use in Brazil” on Monday 7 December, together with a group of representatives from – among others – the Brazilian agribusiness association, WWF Brazil, and the World Resources Institute.

Finally, on 8 December, the Environment Department of the San Paulo State will launch the Climate Protocol of the State of Sao Paulo at the Brazilian Embassy. As a signatory, UNICA will be there, delivering a few words about the importance of this protocol and how sugarcane can contribute to the reduction of emissions.

UNICA Appreciates EPA Increasing Advanced Biofuels in Final RFS Rule

Leticia Phillips — posted 30/11/2015

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (known by the acronym “UNICA”) issued the following statement regarding the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) final renewable volume obligations for 2014-2016 through the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). It should be attributed to Elizabeth Farina, UNICA President.

“UNICA is heartened by EPA’s recognition the RFS requirements for advanced biofuel can and should increase. Today’s decision appears to leave the door open for continued American access to sugarcane ethanol from Brazil, one of the cleanest and most commercially ready advanced biofuels available today.”

“EPA has taken another step toward a cleaner, healthier environment, and Brazilian sugarcane producers stand ready to make even higher volumes of advanced biofuel available to America. According to the latest estimates, Brazil is on track to produce nearly six percent more sugarcane ethanol this year compared to 2014 – an additional 450,000 gallons. Under the right market conditions, Brazil has the capacity to produce up to two billion additional gallons of this advanced biofuel for export according to installed capacity figures.”

“America and Brazil have built a thriving global biofuels market, creating economic growth and environmental benefits, through good policy implementation. UNICA applauds today’s decision by EPA to maintain that growth by encouraging production of clean, low-carbon fuels.”

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The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association is the leading trade association for the sugarcane industry in Brazil, representing 60 percent of the country’s sugarcane production and processing. More information on sugarcane ethanol and its role as an advanced biofuel is available at www.sugarcane.org/rfs

Cleaner fuels are necessary to tackle climate change

Géraldine Kutas — posted 18/11/2015

With COP21 around the corner we thought it was important to highlight the way sugarcane ethanol can contribute to tackling climate change, and what are some of the steps which need to be taken in order to use sugarcane ethanol’s full potential to decarbonize the transport sector.

This week, we have published an op-ed which does precisely that on the EurActiv website. You can access it by clicking here.

For your convenience, you can also read the op-ed below. And if you happen to be in Paris and would like to find out more about Brazilian Sugarcane, come and visit our booth in the UNFCCC area.

Géraldine Kutas

Cleaner Fuels are necessary to tackle climate change

Imagine that it is Monday, 14 December. A new week is starting. A few days ago, after two weeks of intense rounds of negotiations, world leaders reached a binding agreement to help limit global warming to around 2.7°C. Everyone is happy with it. Poor countries, richer countries, experts, NGOs. It’s over. Finally, a successful COP.

True, it’s less than the original goal of 2°C, but it’s an important step, and the good news is that they agreed to include a five-year review clause, meaning that we actually have a shot at reaching the initial objective in the future, if governments agree to increase their ambition. Everyone can finally rest and prepare for the Christmas holidays.

Soon, it’ll be 2016. So now what?

Say the scenario above happens. Reaching an agreement and committing to honouring it is the first step to dealing with climate change. The second is turning that agreement into reality. We keep hearing that everyone has to play a part in decarbonising the global economy; 2016 will be the year we’ll have to put our money where our mouth is.

The IEA recently released data showing how the global demand for transport fuels has risen systematically since the early 1970s. Realistically, an agreement at COP21 is not going to change this trend anytime soon. Global economies will continue to develop, and so will the number of vehicles on the road and their related emissions.

What we can do however is to make sure that the demand for cleaner transport fuels rises and that their share in the fuel mix increases as well. In other words, we need to make sure the carbon intensity of transport does not follow the same path as its growth, but rather the opposite.

Fuel efficiency gains have been and will continue to be made, but they are likely to be outpaced by demand growth. So, solving the transport emissions issue will have to be dealt with by other means, one of which is using the cleanest biofuels.

The government of Brazil has clearly stated in its climate pledge that the transport sector will have to contribute to the effort, and that it will rely on sugarcane ethanol for this. Why? Because a litre of sugarcane ethanol emits on average 90% less CO₂ than petrol, and reduces local pollutants when compared to diesel.

It is simply the easiest and cheapest way to reduce emissions in the sector, which is why Brazil has indicated in its INDC (Intended Nationally Determined Contribution) that it would increase the share of sustainable biofuels in the Brazilian energy mix to 18% in 2030 to reduce transport emissions in the country. More specifically, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff said sugarcane ethanol and other derivatives would account for 16% of the energy mix in 2030.

At EU level, the debate around biofuels has momentarily stopped with the closure of the ILUC file in April this year. However, transport remains one of the key sectors where emissions cuts will be required in order to meet the 40% GHG emission reduction EU target by 2030. In 2016, the EU will look at transport as one of the three non-ETS sectors (along with buildings and agriculture) where emissions cuts can and must be achieved.

One major issue remains open though. No differentiation is made amongst first generation biofuels. Yet, there are those which have adverse consequences on the environment, but also the ones which are actually sustainable, such as sugarcane ethanol. Never mind the fact that sugarcane residues are also used to produce second-generation biofuels and bioelectricity. The absence of distinction hurts one of the cleanest available transport fuels in the world today.

At EU level, one opportunity to make full use of the advantages of sugarcane ethanol will be the review of the RED, in which a distinction between low- and high-ILUC biofuels can and should be made. This may seem like just a nuance, but it is critical in order to give a role to sustainable first generation biofuels. Recognising this simple fact would make it easy to seize the low-hanging fruit that they are, given how easy it is to blend them to reduce the carbon intensity of other transport fuels for which demand will rise.

One may think that sugarcane ethanol is there to compete with electric vehicles. The opposite is true in fact. We believe that the use of sustainable biofuels is actually complementary with electrification of mobility. Realistically, liquid fuels will retain an important – perhaps the biggest – role in transport in various combinations. Our conviction is that hybrid ‘electric + low-ILUC biofuels’ vehicles will be the optimal formula to cut emissions in transport by 2030. We want to be part of the solution.

Géraldine Kutas is Head of International Affairs at the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA).