Netherlands and Brazil agree to cooperate on sustainable biofuel production

Brazil and the Netherlands agreed Friday to work together on the sustainable production of biofuels and to help developing nations establish their own crops to make alternatives to fossil fuels.

Dutch Foreign Minister Maxime Verhagen said Brazil, the world’s largest producer of ethanol from sugar cane, is well placed to help the European Union meet its target of having biofuels make up 10 percent of fuel needs in the bloc’s transport sector by 2020.
But he said that the ethanol has to be produced sustainably — meaning without muscling out food crops or leading to deforestation.

“This is in both our interests,” Verhagen said. “It is in your interest as an exporter to a potentially enormous market, and it is in our interest because we want to honor our European commitments and diversify our energy mix to avoid being overly dependent on too few suppliers.”

Brazilian and European officials at a climate change conference in Brasilia two months ago discussed independent inspections of Brazil biofuel operations to ensure ethanol is produced in an environmentally sustainable manner with no rain forest deforestation.

International Herald Tribune