CARB Recognizes Sugarcane Ethanol’s Significant Emission Reductions

Sao Paulo, July 28, 2009 – The state government of California has updated its calculations of sugarcane ethanol’s emission reductions, clearly recognizing the enormous contribution of the Brazilian biofuel on the fight against global warming. The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) welcomed the announcement, since it has been for months urging the California Air Resources Board (CARB) to improve their emission analysis.

“UNICA applauds CARB’s decision to revisit the data. The new proposal recognizes the science and gives reasonable credits to the mechanization of the sugarcane harvest, as well as the generation of bioelectricity with the burning of sugarcane bagasse”, declared Joel Velasco, UNICA’s chief representative for North America.

In March of this year, CARB approved its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), the first in the world, which aims at reducing the “carbon intensity” of all fuels used in the state. Beginning in 2011, California’s LCFS will reduce the carbon intensity of fuels, reaching at least a 10% reduction by 2020.

In its calculations, CARB determined that the carbon intensity of gasoline is about 95 grams of carbon dioxide per mega joule (gCO2/MJ), which means that the fuel will need be reduced to a carbon intensity of 86 gCO2/MJ by 2020 to comply with the new regulations. California alone has about 30 million vehicles – approximately the total number of cars of the Brazilian fleet – and consumes more than 15 billion gallons (60 billion liters) of gasoline per year.

CARB’s original calculations stipulated that sugarcane ethanol had an intensity of 27 gCO2/MJ, plus other estimated indirect land use emissions of 46 gCO2/MJ, bringing the biofuel’s total intensity to 73 gCO2/MJ. The new analysis released by CARB allow Brazilian ethanol to receive a credit of more than 15 gCO2/MJ, due to the use of bioelectricity from sugarcane cogeneration (7 gCO2/MJ) and the mechanization of sugarcane harvest (8.2 gCO2/MJ).