We had a very successful experience in India, the host country of the G20 ministerial meeting on Energy Transitions, held in July in the city of Goa. At the moment when the group of the world's largest economies launches the Global Alliance for Biofuels, strengthening these energy sources in low-carbon mobility, on Brazil's part, we had the grateful joy of following, firsthand, the announcement by Minister Alexandre Silveira on the submission to the National Congress of the Bill “Fuel of the Future”.

The Ministry of Mines and Energy's proposal will take the commitment to sustainable mobility in Brazil even further, incorporating the life cycle assessment as a sustainability criterion. The project is innovative as it considers the principle of neutrality or technological diversity, that is, there will be no privileges for any route, but recognition of all that contribute to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions.

In the words of Minister Alexandre Silveira, “Brazil will be the first country in the world to implement a mobility policy, based on the life cycle of the fuel well”. According to the concept adopted in the bill, the evaluation of fuels will account for all greenhouse gas emissions, from the process of cultivation and extraction of resources to the production of liquid or gaseous fuels, or electricity, its distribution and use in light and heavy passenger and commercial vehicles.

We received this news at the seminar of the Special Edition of Lectures on Ethanol, promoted by the Union of the Sugarcane Industry and Bioenergy, Local Productive Arrangement of Alcohol, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and ApexBrasil, in Goa , on the eve of the G20 meeting.

The event had a partnership with the automotive and sugar-energy industries in India, represented by the Association of Indian Automobile Manufacturers and the Indian Association of Sugar Industries. We were also honored to receive a delegation of parliamentarians from the Senate and Chamber of Deputies of Brazil.

Our Indian partners were impressed with the fact that the Fuel of the Future project raised the ethanol blend from the current 27% to 30%, showing that ethanol, along with other solutions, has enormous potential to make an efficient energy transition with low cost to society.

It is a measure that will certainly put Brazil on another level in the long-awaited energy transition towards low carbon. It is not new that the Brazilian experience with ethanol and bioenergy has helped to transform the social, environmental and economic reality in countries in Asia and Latin America. In India, where we were recently, the results of this cooperation work, intensified over the last four years, can be seen in the rapid evolution of ethanol's participation in the Indian transport matrix.

The percentage of biofuel blended into gasoline jumped from 1.4% in 2014 to 12% this year, with an expectation of reaching 20% in 2025. In addition, the country started production of flex fuel technology in cars and motorcycles. As we know, the transport sector is responsible for almost 25% of global greenhouse gas emissions. And the ethanol produced in Brazil from sugarcane and corn, it should be emphasized, emits up to 90% less carbon dioxide than gasoline.

Therefore, the transition to low-carbon mobility involves the adoption of biofuels as a substitute for fossil fuels. And if, on the one hand, we have in Brazil a case of success with ethanol in light vehicles, on the other hand, we have the opportunity to go far beyond its current use.

The new frontiers point to a great role for biofuels in the future of aviation. The development of sustainable aviation fuel from ethanol has enormous potential to be explored, and Brazil and Latin America could become the great gravitational center for production and distribution. A recent study by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture shows that 65% of the sector's decarbonization should come from the use of sustainable aviation fuel, with a forecast of expanding the demand for biofuels by 250%.

On the other hand, we can produce biogas and biomethane from residues from sugarcane processing. In heavy vehicles, biomethane acts as a substitute for diesel and natural gas, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by up to 95% compared to fossil fuels. And this production is starting to gain scale in Brazil, including a plant already certified by RenovaBio.

We are facing a horizon with different perspectives, which brings us to the challenge of understanding the trend and how the sugar-energy sector can contribute to the process. The demand for bioenergy is global, however, it has to be produced sustainably and delivered with low carbon intensity, without these characteristics no effective decarbonization.

In this context, Brazil has all the conditions to be a player decisive, above all for its unique experience in the world for the development of value chains destined to the production, distribution and consumption of biofuels. I am certain that the country is ready to take on ever higher flights, promoting the path of sustainability, especially as public institutions and the private sector act in the same direction.