Journal ArticleDOI
Expansion of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil: environmental and social challenges.
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TLDR
Recommendations include proper planning and environmental risk assessments for the expansion of sugarcane to new regions such as Central Brazil, improvement of land use practices to reduce soil erosion and nitrogen pollution, and proper protection of streams and riparian ecosystems to discourage excessive replacement of natural ecosystems by bioenergy crops.Abstract:
Several geopolitical factors, aggravated by worries of global warming, have been fueling the search for and production of renewable energy worldwide for the past few years. Such demand for renewable energy is likely to benefit the sugarcane ethanol industry in Brazil, not only because sugarcane ethanol has a positive energetic balance and relatively low production costs, but also because Brazilian ethanol has been successfully produced and used as biofuel in the country since the 1970s. However, environmental and social impacts associated with ethanol production in Brazil can become important obstacles to sustainable biofuel production worldwide. Atmospheric pollution from burning of sugarcane for harvesting, degradation of soils and aquatic systems, and the exploitation of cane cutters are among the issues that deserve immediate attention from the Brazilian government and international societies. The expansion of sugarcane crops to the areas presently cultivated for soybeans also represent an environmental threat, because it may increase deforestation pressure from soybean crops in the Amazon region. In this paper, we discuss environmental and social issues linked to the expansion of sugarcane in Brazil for ethanol production, and we provide recommendations to help policy makers and the Brazilian government establish new initiatives to produce a code for ethanol production that is environmentally sustainable and economically fair. Recommendations include proper planning and environmental risk assessments for the expansion of sugarcane to new regions such as Central Brazil, improvement of land use practices to reduce soil erosion and nitrogen pollution, proper protection of streams and riparian ecosystems, banning of sugarcane burning practices, and fair working conditions for sugarcane cutters. We also support the creation of a more constructive approach for international stakeholders and trade organizations to promote sustainable development for biofuel production in developing countries such as Brazil. Finally, we support the inclusion of environmental values in the price of biofuels in order to discourage excessive replacement of natural ecosystems such as forests, wetlands, and pasture by bioenergy crops.read more
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Journal ArticleDOI
Bioenergy and climate change mitigation: an assessment.
Felix Creutzig,N. H. Ravindranath,Göran Berndes,Simon Bolwig,Ryan M. Bright,Francesco Cherubini,Helena L. Chum,Esteve Corbera,Mark A. Delucchi,André Faaij,Joseph Fargione,Helmut Haberl,Helmut Haberl,Garvin Heath,Oswaldo Lucon,Richard J. Plevin,Alexander Popp,Carmenza Robledo-Abad,Steven K. Rose,Pete Smith,Anders Hammer Strømman,Sangwon Suh,Omar Masera +22 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors bring together perspectives of various communities involved in the research and regulation of bioenergy deployment in the context of climate change mitigation: Land-use and energy experts, land use and integrated assessment modelers, human geographers, ecosystem researchers, climate scientists and two different strands of life-cycle assessment experts.
Journal ArticleDOI
Pervasive transition of the Brazilian land-use system
David M. Lapola,Luiz Antonio Martinelli,Carlos A. Peres,Jean Pierre Henry Balbaud Ometto,Manuel Eduardo Ferreira,Carlos A. Nobre,Ana Paula Dutra Aguiar,Mercedes M. C. Bustamante,Manoel Cardoso,Marcos Heil Costa,Carlos Alfredo Joly,Christiane Cavalcante Leite,Paulo Moutinho,Gilvan Sampaio,Bernardo B. N. Strassburg,Bernardo B. N. Strassburg,Ima Célia Guimarães Vieira +16 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors consider the evolving relationship between land-use change and greenhouse gas emissions in Brazil and argue that strong enforcement of sector-oriented policies and solving long-standing land tenure problems, rather than simply waiting for market self-regulation, are key steps to buffer the detrimental effects of agricultural intensification at the forefront of a sustainable pathway for land use in Brazil.
Journal ArticleDOI
Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a Green Economy
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize the existing knowledge at the interface of renewable energy and biodiversity accross the five drivers of ecosystem change and biodiversity loss of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment (MA) framework (i.e., habitat loss/change, pollution, overexploitation, climate change and introduction of invasive species).
Journal ArticleDOI
Biofuels, ecosystem services and human wellbeing: Putting biofuels in the ecosystem services narrative
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors provide a critical review of the drivers, impacts and tradeoffs of biofuel production and use, and identify priority research areas on the interface of bio fuels, ecosystem services and human wellbeing.
References
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TL;DR: The first volume of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report as mentioned in this paper was published in 2007 and covers several topics including the extensive range of observations now available for the atmosphere and surface, changes in sea level, assesses the paleoclimatic perspective, climate change causes both natural and anthropogenic, and climate models for projections of global climate.
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