Brazil biofuels bid rebuffed in G8 in final documents

09 July 2008 19:39  [Source: ICIS news]

(recasts with new headline; adds comment from Lula in paragraph 3)

HOUSTON (ICIS news)--Brazil's bid to promote biofuels at the G8 presidential summit met with disappointment, having been left out of the final documents on climate change, sources said on Wednesday.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil had pledged to promote biofuels at the G8 meeting in Japan, viewing ethanol and biodiesel as contributors to reducing carbon emissions.

“I suggested, among other things, that it was necessary that we have not only a common discussion, but a common diagnosis over what is going on today in the world’s food supply,” Lula said in Portuguese, referring to the debate over food-vs-fuels that has dampened global enthusiasm for biofuels.

Brazil is the world’s largest ethanol exporter, and the second largest producer after the US.

Global biofuels producers, including those from Brazil and the US, joined in the effort with a joint letter to sway the G8 attendees to adopt formal approval of biofuels.

The G8 concluded that the effort to lower greenhouse gas emissions should focus on clean and renewable energy sources, mentioning nuclear power generation but not biofuels, according to Brazilian state media.

In a separate statement that coincided with the G8 meeting, the UK government urged caution in expansion of biofuels, warning that food prices could soar as a result.

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By: John Waggoner
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