Analysis of the Formulation of the National Biofuels Policy - Renovabio: the Territorial, the Political and the Economic

Abstract

Concern over climate change currently occupies a central role, with the staging of world environmental events to discuss the effects of excessive fossil fuel use and their negative impacts on the environment. The Paris Agreement was signed within this perspective, in which Brazil adopted targets for the reconfiguration of its energy matrix and subsequently created the Política Nacional de Biocombustíveis (RenovaBio - National Biofuels Policy), through Law no. 13.576/2017, to reach these targets. As another public policy aimed at encouraging agribusiness, being derived from a strong history of the sugar-energy sector depending on state measures to sustain it, it is important to reflect beyond the formal content of the public policy and observe the interests it seeks to defend. Furthermore, by creating an expansion mechanism for the cultivation of sugarcane, RenovaBio brings territorial and environmental impacts. Thus, the present article aims to analyze the formulation stage of the public policy, to verify the economic and political context that supported the approval of, and subsequent alterations to RenovaBio. Methodologically, the analysis was carried out on three levels: Superficial; Territorial Coverage; and Structural. It was found that there was the formation of a network of actors involved in the process, which demonstrates the existence of power relationships, at times translated through subordination, resource dependence, or political support. These actors were involved in the construction of the text of the Law to favor the group, the approval of the bill in record time, its directed regulation, the relaxation of requirements, and the fixing of high Decarbonization Credit acquisition targets. RenovaBio is extremely promising; however, there are loopholes that need to be resolved and a series of political interferences that hinder the development, transparency, and credibility of the program.