Overview
“We still hope that another 20 units can adhere to the protocol, and that we can come very close to reaching all 150 mills and distilleries operating in São Paulo still this year”, said Ricardo Viegas, manager of the Etanol Verde (Green Ethanol) project, commenting on the Agro-environmental Protocol of the State of São Paulo (Protocolo Agroambiental Paulista).
“I am happy to see that your President has shown progress in both fields. Brazil has made progress in easing the poverty and, at the same time, has been much creative in the energy matter”, said Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary-general.
“We produce ethanol for other purposes in the medical-pharmaceutical and food industry. Our interest right now is to modernize the sugar industry in order to make it more efficient, but we do not have an alcohol program like Brazil, which has different conditions from the ones of Cuba”, said Raúl de La Nuez, Minister of Foreign Trade of Cuba, during the first visit of a Cuban minister to FIESP (Industry Federation of the State of São Paulo).
“The duct will be open to everyone and not only to Petrobras”, said Gilberto Ribeiro de Carvalho, new projects development manager of Petrobras, about the company’s plans for construction of an alcohol duct.
“Unless some radical changes are made to the agricultural law to be ratified by the White House, it will be clear that the American position on subsidies did not improve at all”, said Roberto Azevedo, sub-secretary for Economic Affairs at Itamaraty [Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs].
“Instead of aggressions, the USA need to make agricultural concessions in order for us to reach an agreement”, said Ambassador Clodoaldo Hugueney, head of the Brazilian delegation for the WTO
(World Trade Organization) in Geneva, Switzerland.
“The sugar-cane-based ethanol produced in Brazil is cheaper, more efficient and has a greater impact in the reduction of emissions than the corn-based ethanol produced in the USA”, said Kevin Watkins, lead author of the Human Development Report of the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).
“…For Brazil to export its ethanol for any country in the world, there is an enormous surtax which nearly doubles the price of our alcohol. However, petroleum bought from petroleum countries does not have to pay any taxes. Where is the trade balance? Where is the will to clean the planet?”, said President Lula during the launching event of the UNDP (United Nations Development Program).
“Today, the absolute priority of the Government of Minas is to plan the future in this sector. My concern is not to spread new mills throughout the State. As there are some intelligence centers for specific fields in other parts of the world, we want to consolidate these centers in Minas”, said the Governor of Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves, about the Ethanol Intelligence Center to be housed in the State.
“If Brazil does not prepare, it may lose the leadership it holds today against the rest of the world”, said David Rothkope, IDB (Inter-American Development Bank)
bioenergy area consultant.
“Our role is not only to export, but also to build the alternative fuels intelligence. This is our effort, and we want to take the lead in this project”, said the Governor of Minas Gerais, Aécio Neves, commenting on the Ethanol Intelligence Center to be housed in the state, during an interview at the head offices of IDB in Washington, USA.
“We have several technological processing alternatives which allow the better use of the soil, better use of labor and, primarily, without imposing any risks to the environment – provided everything is managed with environmental responsibility”, said Edna Carmélia, Biodiesel coordinator of the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA).
“We all know there is no scarcity of food in the world, but rather scarcity of income to guarantee that the poorest will have something to eat. We are not here to choose between food and energy”, said President Lula during the International Conference on Biofuels in Brussels, Belgium.
“We will be reducing the asymmetries and inequalities between the energy consumer and the energy producer countries, and preventing potential conflicts arising from the competition for finite energy resources”, said President Lula during the International Conference on Biofuels in Brussels, Belgium.
“Brazil did an excellent job stimulating its alternative biofuels industry”, said Barack Obama, US Democratic presidential pre-candidate.
“It is necessary that there be a strong public-private partnership, and Brazil has shown how successful such a partnership can be. We in the United States do not have the commitment degree to establish such kind of agreement”, said Tom Daschle, ex-leader of the Democratic Party in the US Senate, commenting on the Brazilian model of ethanol production.
|