For the first time in its history, the biofuels sector has the possibility of a future market reference. The RenovaBio National Biofuels Plan, conceived by the current government and widely discussed with society, opens the prospect of establishing conditions that will lead to increasing efficiency gains, cost reductions and the price of biofuels to consumers. A plan that applies to all low carbon footprint fuels, ethanol, biodiesel, biogas and biomethane and biokerosene.
After extensive public consultation, its guidelines were approved by the National Energy Policy Council, and a proposed legislative measure was jointly built by the government and society. On the initiative of Congressman Evandro Gussi, the bill was presented and approved on an emergency basis in the Chamber and Senate with a large parliamentary majority, having been sanctioned by law in December. On March 14, at an event held in Ribeirão Preto before more than 1,000 representatives of the entire production, financing and commercialization chain of biofuels, the president signed the decree that regulates it.
With RenovaBio, Brazil has the chance to create lasting conditions to encourage private investment, enhance energy and environmental efficiency and reward the adoption of sustainability innovations.
The RenovaBio is an initiative that is moving towards the goals of nations that represent more than 60 percent of the world’s population. At COP-23 in Bonn, these countries issued a vision statement stating that for global warming to be limited to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, it will be necessary to double the share of bioenergy and triple the share of biofuels in global demand for energy by 2030. There is a sense of urgency around the world on this subject. However, it is necessary to understand that with RenovaBio the pace of expansion of the biofuels market will be dictated by the decarbonization targets and the response that this process generates as a stimulus for new investments.
Nor should producers have the feeling that they have won a pot of gold. RenovaBio does not create a subsidy or a new tax to protect production. In fact, it creates a new competition rule that will value and reward energy efficiency and the lowest environmental impact. It is a modern and innovative regulation, which has been praised in several international forums, and already begins to be copied in some countries.
All the ministries and government bodies involved, led by the Minister of Mines and Energy, Fernando Coelho Filho, the civil society and the economic sectors related to its formulation make history with this program, which comprises a set of induction initiatives that add investments private energy futures of more than $ 1.3 trillion. An initiative that values national capacities in the production of biofuels and in the national automotive engineering developed to use them in an efficient way. A program that will bring the definitive integration between biofuels and petroleum derivatives, bringing environmental sustainability and longevity to the latter. It is an integrated plan for economic, energy and environmental development, coupled with an industrial policy and valorization of agricultural production. With the RenovaBio, Brazil creates the definitive bases for the sustainable development of its agriculture and bioenergy. With good reason, at the signing ceremony of the regulatory decree, the President of the Republic indicated that this was perhaps the most important act of his government.
Article originally posted on O Estado de São Paulo website on 04/3/18
*Plinio Nastariis President of DATAGRO Consultoria and representative of civil society in the National Council of Energy Policy (CNPE)