Abstract:Sustainable energy strategies require decision-makers in government, industry, academia and civil society alike to make choices among tradeoffs. Within the transport sector alone, ethanol has been shown to be the dominant solution among viable, low carbon options to date, yet questions remain over the economic and ecological impacts of this industry.In Brazil -the largest producer of sugarcane-based ethanol and a country with over three decades of ethanol development -we find a strong basis for evaluating the … Show more
“…blending bioethanol in 1931 and mandated a blend of 18 to 25% bioethanol with petrol in 2011 6 . In India, where most agricultural areas are located in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) region 33 , the government has approved the National Policy on Biofuels, which proposes blending biodiesel and bioethanol (20%) with diesel and petrol by 2017.…”
“…blending bioethanol in 1931 and mandated a blend of 18 to 25% bioethanol with petrol in 2011 6 . In India, where most agricultural areas are located in the semi-arid tropics (SAT) region 33 , the government has approved the National Policy on Biofuels, which proposes blending biodiesel and bioethanol (20%) with diesel and petrol by 2017.…”
“…We focus here on industrial policy targeted at non-sugar markets specifically, though others have identified 'subsidies' that support the sugarcane industry as a whole. 4 The role of the Brazilian state in the politics of sugarcane 'flexing' is usually dated to the 1975 Pró-Álcool programme, but in fact the first ethanol blend mandate of five per cent was put in place in 1931 (Costa et al 2011). That said, it was not until the 1973-74 oil price crisis that Brazil's ethanol industry really started to develop.…”
Section: Flexing and The New Geographies Of Sugarcanementioning
In the context of rising resource demand, agricultural crops such as sugarcane are being promoted for their multiple uses in different commodity markets and as alternatives to fossil fuel equivalents (i.e. as a source of biofuel, bioelectricity and bioplastic). These commodities are also produced on an increasingly flexible basis, as sugarcane mills respond to price signals and switch between different crop uses. This paper offers a preliminary exploration into the politics of this latest development in the capitalist industrialization of agriculture. It does so by focusing primarily on flexing in Brazil and highlighting the role of the state both in creating markets for non-food products that sugarcane mills can now switch between and managing the tensions that arise from this. These tensions have concerned consumer prices for fuel, control of distribution infrastructure and conditions of land conversion, each prompting political interventions by the state. The paper then suggests how this same process is taking place, albeit shaped by different contexts, in Southern Africa and Cambodia. It concludes with some key questions for further research: is flexing eroding the distinction between crop regimes? How do primary processors decide what their product mix will be? And on what basis do state actors support flexing between agricultural products and investments in so-called bio-refineries?
The main driving forces of the development of alternative energy are growing energy demand combined with the search for energy independence and environmental issues, such as global warming. Throughout this chapter, the sustainability of the currently most used alternative fuels, their characteristics, applications, global consumption, and demand data will be discussed. The different strategies and policies for the adoption of renewable energies also will be discussed. Fuels are compared by their contributions to the development of the circularity of the energy sector, by the feedstock and process efficiency. The advantages, disadvantages, and barriers that each one presents are evaluated to better understand which are the most promising and how their production and consumption can be increased. The aim of this chapter is to present the potential alternative fuels within their applications and analyze their contribution to make the energy sector more circular and sustainable.
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