Proceedings of the Second International Energy 2030 Conference,
November 4-5, 2008, Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

A Global Vision of Ethanol: The Demystification of a Successful Green Brazilian Concept

Daniel Schmidt
EcoEnergy Brazil

Abstract
This paper sets out EcoEnergy’s vision for the Brazilian ethanol industry and challenges the notion that ethanol is not a truly “green” fuel option. Skeptics maintain that although the use of ethanol may result in lower levels of carbon emission than the use of gasoline, it does indirect damage to the environment through increased deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. They also claim that greater reliance upon ethanol as a fuel source leads to a rise in food prices and is thus a policy that is socially unsound. The bottom line, ethanol’s detractors argue, is that switching gasoline for ethanol is hardly a “green” strategy at all; it merely replaces one social and environmental evil for another. In this paper I show that these skeptical claims are both misleading and false, and that the growth of ethanol as a fuel source is both a welcome development in the fight against global warming and sound social policy.