Invited Speakers

Institution: Embrapa Tabuleiros Costeiros.
Presentation Title: The Sustainability of the Present Ethanol Production and Future Expansion in Northeast Brazil: socio-economic impacts and water use.
Presentation Sumary: In this presentation we will address the main steps of the sugarcane production system and its possible environmental impacts in the Brazil Northeast region. The main actions taken by the productive sector towards the environment and their consequences will presented, as well as the impact of the mechanical harvesting on the socioeconomic sustainability of this region.

E-mail: santiago@cpatc.embrapa.br
Institutional Web Site: www.cpatc.embrapa.br

 


Institution: Institute for International Trade Negotiations (ICONE).
Presentation Title: New Technologies and the Sustainability of the Sugarcane/Bioethanol Production: Assessing the Case of Land Use Change.
Presentation Summary: Land use change and indirect effects resulting from sugarcane expansion is one of the central sustainability issues of the ethanol production. Technologies that are “land saver” will help to improve the sustainability of the sugarcane ethanol. The objective of the presentation is to present methodologies to evaluate the impacts of new technologies on land use change and to discuss how ICONE and CTBE can collaborate on that issue.

E-mail: amnassar@iconebrasil.org.br 
Institutional Web Site: www.iconebrasil.org.br

Institution: Bioethanol Science and Technology Center (CTBE)
Presentation Title 1: CTBE’s Research Program on Sustainability of Bioethanol from Sugarcane
Presentation Sumary 1: The Research Program on Sustainability of Bioethanol from Sugarcane will be presented. The Program focuses on the comparison between alternative processes for the production of ethanol from sugarcane and the conventional one and is organized based on five research projects that will be conducted simultaneously: (a) energy and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission balances; (b) land use change (LUC); (c) soil carbon stock changes and emissions of nitrous oxide; (d) socio-economic impacts; (e) water use and its impacts on water resources. In all five projects CTBE will work together with national and international research groups.

Presentation Title 2: CTBE’s Research Project on Direct and Indirect Impacts of Land Use Change
Presentation Sumary 2: The specific aims of this project will be presented. Regarding direct impacts, the objectives are related to the identification of the land uses displaced by the expansion of the sugarcane cultivation. With respect to ILUC, the general objectives are the consolidation of the knowledge on the techniques of impact evaluation, as well as the consolidation of a database that will allow for consistent analyses. The development of models for the assessment of ILUC impacts will be supported by CTBE (a partial equilibrium economic model developed by ICONE and, alternatively, economic models based on general equilibrium).

Presentation Title 3: CTBE’s Research Project on Impacts on Water Resources
Presentation Sumary 3: This research project is not yet finished and what will be presented is the strategy that will be followed along the next months. In the short-term the priority is the evaluation on water resources of the changes already taking place in the sugarcane production process (e.g., green cane harvesting with trash blanket on the ground). Another short-term priority is regarding the impacts of sugarcane expansion. In the medium-term, the more radical changes in the production process, both in the field and in the factory, should be evaluated regarding the impacts (positive and negative) on the water resources.

E-mail: awalter@fem.unicamp.br
Institutional Web Site: www.bioetanol.org.br

Institution: "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture (Esalq/USP).
Presentation Title: Modelling Land Use Change in Computable General Equilibrium Models.
Presentation Summary: Computable General Equilibrium Models are presently a main tool in policy analysis in many fields inside economics. The issue of land use change, however, is relatively less developed in the field. This presentation will initially focus on the main aspects of general equilibrium models and its use in economics a general framework for policy analysis. Then the issue of land use change will be introduced, as well as the way it’s being modeled in the CGE field.

E-mail: jbsferre@esalq.usp.br
Institutional Web Site: www.economia.esalq.usp.br 

Institution: Interdisciplinary Center of Energy Planning (NIPE/Unicamp)
Presentation Title: Energy and GHG emission balances: CTBE's proposal
Presentation Summary: Currently, sugarcane ethanol can mitigate more than 80% of greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions with respect to petroleum gasoline, and for the future, improvements are foreseen, with the implementation of new technologies in the ethanol production chain. This section will present the proposal of CTBE’s Sustainability Program regarding the evaluation of energy balance and greenhouse gases emissions in the ethanol life cycle. CTBE will use the LCA study (comprising LUC effects) as a tool to evaluate technology alternatives and lead R&D efforts towards the improvement of ethanol sustainability.

E-mail: jeaseabra@gmail.com
Institutional Web Site: www.nipeunicamp.org.br

Institution: Bioethanol Science and Technology Center (CTBE)
Presentation Title 1: CTBE’s Research Project on Soil Carbon Stock Changes and Emissions of Nitrous Oxide
Presentation Sumary 1: The project priority is the collection of data that could increase the precision of the GHG balance results, by taking in account the direct effects of land use change and the changes in the production process (e.g., green cane harvesting, trash left on the ground, no till system, fertilizer/vinasse application etc.), type of soil and climate. The carbon stock above and in the ground will be evaluated before and after the change as well as the resulting N2O emissions. Two potential partners are being contacted, one of them is the group with the leadership of Prof. Carlos Cerri, of CENA-USP; the second is called here Embrapa due to the preliminary stages of the talks. Both groups have long experience with this type of work and the role of CTBE would be to foster the activities. The data base will be open to the public.
 

Presentation Title 2: CTBE’s Research Project on Socio Economic Impacts
Presentation Sumary 2: The research project dealing with the socio economic impacts will focus on the local impacts, that is, in the places where sugarcane and ethanol are being produced, and related to the social groups directly involved with the production. In the short term, the lines of research are being defined as: (a) identification of the socio economic impacts of the sugarcane and ethanol production activities; the evaluation will be done using life quality and wealth distribution indicators in the counties where the production will take place;(b) the same, but with the evaluation based on input-output matrices; (c) identification of the impacts of the introduction of the sugarcane/ethanol activities in a place that never had any; (d) evaluation of the working conditions in the sugarcane/ethanol production.
Part of the work will de done internally at CTBE and part with the collaboration with external groups. One partnership, still under discussion, is with the group of Prof. Marcia Azanha Moraes of ESALQ.

E-mail: regis.leal@bioetanol.org.br
Institutional Web Site: www.bioetanol.org.br

Institution: "Luiz de Queiroz" College of Agriculture (Esalq/USP)
Presentation Title: Social Externalities of Diferent Fuels in Brazil
Presentation Summary: This presentation compares socioeconomic indicators for the sugarcane and ethanol (S&E), petroleum extraction, and oil by-product industries; analyses the penetration of the segments in terms of job generation; and estimates the impacts on jobs on the Brazilian economy resulting from replacing gasoline C with hydrated ethanol, through a inter-regional Input-Product Matrix. The main findings are: (i) High job generation in the two links of the (S&E) production chain, which employs more than 6 times the number of workers employed in petroleum production; (ii) High penetration and interiorization of Sugar ant Ethanol (1,042 municipalities impacted versus 176 municipalities in the other sectors); (iii) a 15% substitution of gasoline with ethanol generates 120,000 additional jobs and R$ 240 million in total income.

E-mail: mafdmora@esalq.usp.br
Institutional Web Site: www.esalq.usp.br/gemt
 

Institution: NGO Reporter Brazil.
Presentation Title: NGO Reporter Brazil’s experience on monitoring social impacts of ethanol.
Presentation Summary: There is a group of people that distrusts the boom of the ethanol in Brazil: the rural workers. Their representatives believe that the present reality of sugarcane production provide reasons to keep the critics to employers alive, for lacks that range from low remuneration to the disrespect to the NR31. From one side the progress of mechanization brings benefits to the environment, but from the other puts at risk the manual cutters’ jobs if other immediate alternatives are not presented to them. In its researches the NGO Reporter Brazil monitors the impacts of the expansion of energy cultures. One of the focuses is the identification of productive chains, through which Reporter Brazil disseminates the idea that each actor can collaborate for the socio-ambiental qualification of the productive process. 

E-mail: marcel@reporterbrasil.org.br
Institutional Web Site: www.reporterbrasil.org.br/agrocombustiveis

Institution: Copernicus Institute, Utrecht University (Netherlands).
Presentation Title: Initiatives regarding sustainability of biofuels in Europe and their potential impacts on trade
Presentation Summary: A brief overview of current sustainability certification schemes in Europe will be presented, and a short assessment will be presented what the implications could be for the global trade of liquid biofuels (including the view and expectatiosn of market parties, based on a recent survey by IEA Bioenergy Task 40).

E-mail: h.m.junginger@uu.nl
Institutional Web Site: www.chem.uu.nl/nws

 

Institution: KTH, Division on Energy and Climate Studies, School of Environmental Engineering and Management (Sweden)
Presentation Title: Socio-economic Aspects of Biofuels Production – what are the concerns in Europe?
Presentation Summary: This presentation reflects on issues related to biofuels development which are defining the EU agenda today. The presentation gives an overview of the biofuel agenda in the EU and of its importance in relation to other initiatives towards fuel alternatives for transport.

E-mail: semida.silveira@energy.kth.se
Institutional Web site: www.energy.kth.se/ecs