Brazil has developed its economy backed by one of the cleanest energy matrices in the world due to geographical aptitude and a strategy to reduce dependence on oil. By combining its agricultural vocation with renewable energy potential, it has promoted sustainable economic growth, a pioneer in the world for decades, and the sugar-energy sector is an important part of this success.

The National Alcohol Program was a mission-oriented country project: independence from oil and the creation of a robust and sustainable national production chain. It worked out. According to the Sugarcane and Bioenergy Industry Union, the sugar-energy sector employs more than 2 million people, directly and indirectly, provides more than 8% of the country's electrical energy from biomass and avoids 515 million tons of carbon dioxide carbon per year by replacing part of the use of gasoline.

Cellulosic or second-generation ethanol has the potential to determine a new wave of technological innovation, expanding the Brazilian potential in the decarbonization agenda of the transport sector, outside the food versus fuel debate. Current technology makes it possible to increase ethanol production in Brazil by more than 50% using agricultural residue, sugarcane straw. Cellulosic ethanol has an even smaller carbon footprint than conventional ethanol.

In addition to the possibility of increasing the efficiency of areas already planted with sugar cane, second-generation ethanol, combined with plants such as energy cane, offers transformative potential at a global level. According to the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, Brazil has about 200 million hectares of native or implanted pasture area; of these hectares, 130 million are degraded areas.

The combination of first-generation and second-generation ethanol from energy cane has the potential to produce 24,000 liters per hectare. This is equivalent to saying that Brazil would be able to replace all the gasoline consumed in the world with ethanol using less than half of its pasture or degraded area and reduce the world's total emission of greenhouse gases by 7%.

The future of mobility is moving towards the electrification of engines, which are more efficient than combustion engines and do not emit greenhouse gases. Developed countries articulate the public debate and promote policies and new legislation in their own interest, which is natural. Therefore, in Europe, for example, the “tank on the wheel” concept is valid; the vehicle that does not produce carbon dioxide is green, no matter if it uses a 1-ton lithium-cobalt battery powered by coal-fired electricity.

Brazil has the opportunity to invest in bioelectrification, using ethanol with fuel cells to power electric vehicle engines, in the complete concept of the clean carbon chain. A new mission-driven public policy, such as the National Alcohol Program, for bio-electrification or expansion of second-generation ethanol, could replicate the success with unprecedented ESG impact at a global level.

The sugar-energy sector has evolved technologically and environmentally. The mechanization of harvesting combined with the awareness of the preservation of biomes allowed the emergence of pumas in São Paulo. As the puma is at the top of the food chain, an entire ecosystem has been recovered through sustainability practices.

Sustainability is part of the core business of the sugar-energy sector. No narrative surpasses the practice of a business in its essence, which has sustainability not only as an end commitment, but as its means of doing and existing. The Brazilian sugar-energy sector can be one of the strongest sustainable responses to reversing the impact of climate change as an effect of the course of your business. I will get it right.