Beschreibung:
Brazil is home to one of the world's oldest and boldest biofuels programs. Over the past 35 years, the Brazilian Government has invested heavily in expanding agribusiness and promoting the biofuels industry, thrusting the country into the international spotlight as a top producer, exporter and consumer of this 'green' fuel and several other commodities. Developments in the Brazilian ethanol and biodiesel landscapes are being closely watched in consumer markets such as the US and the EU. They are also being replicated by other countries, especially in Latin America and Africa, where Brazil is exporting technological and policy knowhow through topnotch public institutions such as Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa, or National Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation) and industry groups. So the lessons learned from the Brazilian example are bound to have lasting effects on the policies and guidelines for spreading biofuels production throughout the developing world. However, different feedstocks in Brazil have followed different trajectories, each driven by a distinct set of forces, policies and discourses. This paper maps out the key Brazilian policies and programmes within and outside the biofuels sectors ...