Brazil throws troubled ethanol industry tax breaks, credit

Alonso Soto, Reese Ewing – Reuters, 04/23/2013

Brazil’s government threw its sugar-ethanol industry a lifeline on Tuesday, by cutting taxes and sweetening credit for the struggling sector it hopes will resume investments in new biofuel plants to bolster output.

Finance Minister Guido Mantega, who announced the measures, said he expected a recovery in the ethanol industry could also help curb stubborn consumer inflation by bringing down fuel prices and reducing Brazil’s dependence on gasoline imports.

The reduction of the so-called PIS/Cofins – payroll and social security taxes – and interest rates on loans is expected to help ethanol groups such as Louis Dreyfus, Bunge , Cosan and others offset production costs that have risen steadily in the last decade.

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Anaylsis: Brazil’s once-envied energy matrix a victim of “hubris”

Jeb Blount – Reuters, 01/07/2013

Just five years ago, Brazil‘s mostly “green” energy landscape was the envy of nations dependent on dirtier sources of power and the pride of a government that believed it was leading the country to economic superpower status.

Three-quarters of electricity came from renewable hydro power and the main automobile fuel was home-grown sugarcane ethanol. Plus, Brazil had just found massive oil fields off its coast, putting it on a path to become the world’s No. 3 oil producer after Russia and Saudi Arabia by 2020.

Today, the outlook is much darker. Oil output is falling, ethanol production has plunged, and fears have recently returned of electricity rationing that could further depress a stagnant economy and embarrass President Dilma Rousseff.

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Rio+20: Wind energy subsidies needed to get technology going, says Nick Clegg

Christopher Hope – The Telegraph, 06/20/2012

The Deputy Prime Minister, who is leading the UK delegation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for the Rio+20 Earth Summit, said it was preferable for renewable energy not to rely on subsidies but said initial investment could go a long way.

His comments came after it emerged George Osborne wants to cut subsidies for wind energy in a move which could halt the expansion of the turbines throughout Britain.

Ministers are expecting a reduction of up to a quarter in the value of Renewable Obligation Certificates — or “Rocs” — when the Energy Bill is published in a few weeks’ time.

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Brazilian president promises to boost investment with Bulgaria, her ancestral homeland

Mercopress, 10/06/2011

The Brazilian president received a hero’s welcome in Sofia.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff pledged to raise investment in Bulgaria, her ancestral homeland, in renewable energy, aviation and the oil industry.

Rousseff arrived to the capital Sofia late Tuesday after meeting European Union officials in Brussels, accompanied by representatives from Brazil’s biggest companies, including state-controlled oil company Petrobras and mining company Vale, both based in Rio de Janeiro.

Rousseff, whose late father Pedro Rousseff immigrated to Brazil after leaving Bulgaria before World War II, is on her first visit to the eastern European nation of 7.3 million, where her election last year was widely celebrated. Prime Minister Boiko Borissov gave her a family tree during her inauguration on Jan. 1.

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Brazil soars in renewable energy rankings

Robin Yapp – The Daily Telegraph/RenewableEnergyWorld.com, 09/28/2011

Over half of the investment in Brazil's 10-year energy plan will be spent on hydropower (Source: fotopedia/kevin.j)

There is an old joke that says Brazil is the country of the future – and always will be. But with rapid economic growth, the government claiming that some 40 million people have been lifted out of poverty in the past decade and the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro on the horizon, it seems the joke is about to fall flat. Brazil’s time has arrived and the country of sun, sea and samba is keen to showcase itself to the world as a positive example of how to exploit renewable energy sources as well as how to perform on the football pitch.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, up to 77 percent of the world’s energy needs could potentially be supplied from renewable sources by 2050, despite the current figure being a much more modest 13 percent.

Many heads of government around the world wondering how they can play their part in such a dramatic transformation could be forgiven for looking enviously at Brazil, where the figure already stood at 44.8 percent in 2010 and is forecast to rise to 46.3 percent in 2020.

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Brazil: Attitude Before Altitude, Part 2

Jim Lane- BiofuelsDigest, 05/13/2011

Changing attitudes? 100 percent of the Brazilian sugarcane harvest will be mechanized by 2017.

What exactly is happening in Brazil?

Is it becoming an important place to do business, or an important place to study how business in the future will be done?

In our new three-part series, we look at attitudinal changes powering the huge growth in Brazilian renewable energy. In our last installment of the series “Attitude Before Altitude”, we looked at the rise of consensus on renewable energy across Brazilian society, and the impact of sustainable agricultural transforming, narrowing the climate impact while broadening the human benefit. In part two, we look at the changes in attitude at the policy and industry level.

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Brazil opens world’s first ethanol-fired power plant

Denise Luna-Reuters, 01/19/10

Brazil on Tuesday opened the world’s first ethanol-fueled power plant in an effort by the South American biofuels giant to increase the global use of ethanol and boost its clean power generation.

State-run oil giant Petrobras (PETR4.SA)(PBR.N) and General Electric Co (GE.N), which helped design the plant, are betting that increased use of ethanol generation by green-conscious countries will boost demand for the product.

Brazil, the top global ethanol exporter, is already in talks with Japan to develop biofuels power generation there.

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Report: Reducing Emissions Growth in Emerging Economies Could Be Cheap

Elizabeth Malkin-The New York Times, 11/03/09

How much would it cost to stop increasing greenhouse gas emissions in Mexico? According to a new study from the World Bank, not very much.

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The report is one of six studies on low-carbon growth in emerging economies that the bank has been carrying out — though it is the only one likely to be ready before the United Nations climate change conference next month in Copenhagen. The other analyses — for China, India, Brazil, South Africa and Indonesia – have been stalled by bureaucracy or by governments’ reluctance to provide data ahead of the global negotiations, according to the bank.

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The Infernal State of Mind of Ethanol

Marcos S Jank-Estado de São Paulo, 09/23/09

Few sectors call for as much attention of the international and national media as Brazil’s sugarcane industry. In 2008 alone, 162 delegations from more than 60 countries have requested more information on Brazil’s experience with ethanol and bio electricity. We respond to more than thirty requests from journalists per day, with ten professionals dedicated to the task of producing data for clarification. Still, there are many examples out there of exaggeration, a lack of understanding of the context, unilateral visions and misinformation about the sector.

Part of this is the result of strong emotions that this industry stirs, trouble separating the old from the new, and the historic importance of old sugarcane mills versus the new paradigm of renewable energy, which sugarcane embodies. Evidence of this is that the sugarcane industry is already the second largest source of energy of the country (17% of the energy matrix), behind oil (37%) and above electricity (13%).