This also happens in Brazil: Ethanol Story

Far away from Brazil, almost halfway around the globe, lies my home state Kerala (in India) with 35 million population. We, Keralites don’t speak Portuguese nor have any historical connection with Brazil. I have never heard of anyone from my place going on a vacation to Brazil nor have I met a Brazilian tourist in Kerala (I was 24 years old when I met a Brazilian in person). However paradoxical it may appear, thanks to their beautiful football every second year you can find yellow-green Brazilian flags hanging in our streets and their star player Neymar, is almost a local hero with his face printed in the flex boards on the roadsides. Most of us watch Brazil’s play with patriotic spirit and you can guess why most of these fans were happy when Germany lost to France in European championship 2016. I have always wondered whether Brazilians even knew how much we love their country.

Whenever Veron (my Belgian host mother) saw a big car with only one person (say Mr. B) driving, she will get upset and would wonder aloud “Why did he buy such a big car if he had to travel alone.” So I didn’t know how to react to Veron’s concern. For a boy who was born and brought up in a developing country, driving SUVs is really cool and owning one is always a dream (it would have been same even if I was born in a developed country). But being a master’s student in energy studies, I clearly understood how important her concern is. In the development world her concern is called as high per capita CO2 emission. CO2 emissions is ‘the’ most important issue of our generation and it has brought human beings to a point where we need to decide whether to control CO2 emissions or do nothing and perish in the future. Later I thought about Mr. B, he might be a pro-environment guy who has written several Facebook statuses against climate change; may be even installed a solar PV in his rooftop, but was unable to stop his addiction to fossil fuels for commute, due to lack of alternatives. Isn’t there any other alternatives available? The bitter truth is ‘not much’.

Gasoline — The monopoly

Transport sector accounts for 28 per cent of overall global energy consumption and is responsible for a quarter of worldwide energy-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Most of the total transport energy demand is for road transport, but renewable energy accounts (biofuels, electricity) for only 4 per cent of global road transport fuel. Even though electric vehicles (EV) are pictured as emission free, this will only be true when majority of electricity generated in the system are through renewable sources and currently the number of EVs in the road are negligible (only represents 0.1 per cent of total passenger cars). This means the current global transport sector is almost completely dependent on crude oil and bio fuels are the only commercially available replacement for oil.

First oil crisis and then came Ethanol

When oil prices quadrupled during 1973 oil crisis, some oil consuming countries employed ‘smart’ foreign policy to get oil without any interruption and others like Brazil introduced ambitious domestic policy to satisfy the demand. In the year 1975, 17 years before international treaty to reduce GHG emissions was signed in the Japanese city of Kyoto and exactly 20 years before the first Conferences of the Parties (COP) was held in Berlin, Brazil launched a nationwide bio fuel program, called Pró-Álcool, to phase out fossil fuels for automobiles. Today Brazil has replaced almost 40% of its gasoline needs with sugarcane ethanol.

Policy drives technology — another proof

Have you heard about Flexi-fuel vehicles (FFV)? These vehicles can run with gasoline or ethanol fuel. The fleet of FFV in Brazil is the largest in the world, registrations of these vehicles represented 87.0% of all passenger and light duty vehicles sold in 2012. If Mr. B (same guy from Belgium) is driving around in his car in Brazil and stopping at one of the fuel stations, he will be confronted with a choice between gasoline and ethanol, this choice is unimaginable in most of countries in the world. He can choose sugarcane ethanol not only for its environmental benefits but also for its price. This fuel diversity shields Brazilian economy against the volatility of international oil price. This choice may enable Mr. B to fill ethanol in his car and surely escape from the wrath of Veron.

Choices does not end here, on the supply side farmers are blessed with the freedom to sell their sugarcane plants either for making sugar or for making ethanol. This competitive domestic market empowers sugarcane industry of Brazil (the world’s largest sugarcane producer) which employs 1.09 million workers and contributes 2% of its GDP. But Brazil’s bio fuel program is not foolproof; it has its own grey areas such as child labor, deforestation, effect on food prices and genetically modified crops. Since there is no other substitute for crude oil, in my opinion any fuel that is close to carbon neutral should be promoted. Annual production of ethanol in Brazil is equivalent to global oil demand for a day, i.e. Brazilian ethanol globally prevents all sorts of emissions from oil for a day in every year. If you look at the world map of renewable energy, Brazil is unique and stands out from the rest with renewables contribution accounts for more than 80 per cent of electricity production and 40 per cent of road fuels.

Superpower Brazil

Recently Brazil was in headlines for the wrong reasons: suspension of their president, rising inflation, along with high rates of corruption and unemployment, we can say politically and economically they are having a tough time. And news from the football world is also not that good, like many Keralites, I was also devastated when Brazil was knocked out in the group stages of the recent Copa America. But these events did not make my love for Brazil any less, because politics will change, economy will rise, Copa America will come again but sustainability in energy sector is hard to achieve in which Brazil is already a superpower. I am a proud Brazilian fan because ethanol happens in Brazil.

Picture courtesy — Paul Patrick

This article is orginally published in LinkedIn on July 9, 2016