Brazil is hoping for breakthroughs in promoting biofuels as a bigger part of climate change policies during this year's UN Cop 31 climate summit in November, panelists at a preparatory event held last week in Sao Paulo said.
Brazil is second only to the US in biofuels output and consumption. It wants its biofuels to be a bigger part of the global energy transition.
But European environmental and energy groups have long pushed back against biofuels as a central climate change solution, given issues with land cleared for crops and limited expansion availability for biofuels from waste oils and fats.
Brazil launched last year during Cop 30 — which it hosted — the Belem 4X pledge, a global effort to quadruple global output and use of sustainable fuels, including biofuels, by 2035.
The consolidation of biofuels "as an absolutely crucial alternative for the energy transition" will continue to be one of Brazil's priorities at Cop 31, the foreign affairs ministry's energy, climate and environment secretary Mauricio Lyrio told attendees.
The Cop 31 presidency has already laid out its focus areas for this year's summit in Turkey. The most prominent is a global goal for electricity to reach 35pc of global energy consumption by 2035, up from around 20pc.
"[The biofuels and electricity expansion agendas] are complementary — as mechanisms, instruments, and technologies — for the economic transition that needs to take place," Brazil's environment minister Aloisio de Melo told Argus. "But it is important for Brazil to bring this input [of biofuels] and rally countries that view it as an option, helping to advance this agenda."
That echoes comments made by Brazil's environment and climate change minister Joao Paulo Capobianco during the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, held in April. While electrification is essential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, viable and scalable short-term alternatives — such as biofuels — must also play a significant role, especially in developing countries, he said then.
Hybrid solutions using ethanol or biodiesel can help reduce immediate emissions at a lower cost, helping countries facing fiscal constraints and substantial investment needs.
Capobianco cited the renewal of Brazil's urban bus fleets as an example. Replacing the entire fleet with fully electric vehicles would require massive public investment, which could delay the modernization of public transport, he said. But hybrid models powered by biofuels such as ethanol and biodiesel would allow for significant emission cuts while leveraging existing infrastructure.
Fossil fuels roadmap
Biofuels will also be key in the Cop 30 presidency's ongoing roadmap on the phase-out of fossil fuels, another of Brazil's centerpieces during Cop 30.
The roadmap will only work if the world can accelerate supply of energy sources other than fossil fuels, the Cop 30 presidency's coordinator for the roadmap Pedro Brancate said.
Cop 30 ended without a final deal on a plan to shift away from fossil fuels, but the summit's Brazilian leadership vowed to oversee creating a roadmap on the issue outside of the official framework. It will present the plan during Cop 31.
And although electrification will no doubt be a key part of that transition, it alone will not be able to replace every usage of fossil fuels, Brancate said.
"We sometimes forget that fossil fuels globally account for 95pc of the transport sector's energy demand," Brancate said. "So, even with accelerated electrification of light vehicles in various markets, sustainable fuels will remain highly relevant to the transition away from fossil fuels."
The Cop 31 presidency has not put the phasing out of fossil fuels on the summit's agenda yet, but sources have told Argus that it is unlikely that it would block talks on the issue.
The Cop 30 presidency will also present a roadmap focusing on deforestation during Cop 31.
