Brazil Flex Fuel Cars Cut 83.5 Million Tons of CO2 since 2003

Brazilian use of flex-fuel cars, which run on any mix of gasoline and ethanol, have prevented 83.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions since 2003, according to UNICA, the country’s main sugarcane growers association. The amount of the greenhouse gases such vehicles prevented from entering the environment is equal about a fifth of annual emissions in Brazil, the world’s eighth-largest economy, according to the United Nations. Thanks to laws requiring hydrous ethanol pumps in all filling stations in Brazil and requiring all gasoline blends to be 20-25% anhydrous ethanol, biofuels made up 22.3% of fuel use in 2009, 14% more than 2008. (See related article: EPA Confims Sugarcane Ethanol is a Low Carbon, Advanced Renewable Fuel).