Since 1972, when climate change was denounced in Stockholm, in one of the first climate conferences, the United Nations has embraced this cause, as it realized it was a highly relevant topic that would affect all countries in the world.

Since then, many conventions have been promoted and protocols of intentions signed suggesting procedures for developing socio-environmental policies with the support of more than 170 countries. There have been numerous campaigns to mitigate Greenhouse Gas emissions, with the focus being the enormous environmental catastrophes that rising temperatures would cause to the planet.

From then on, a wave was created and, like a huge Tsunami, it dragged all sectors of society, such as health, education, urban mobility, the environment, infrastructure, agribusiness, etc. Little by little, he received the accession of many countries and the financial conglomerates that dominate the main branches of activity around the world.

One word came to dominate all areas of activity: sustainability. In fact, it has become a new concept of business management. With the concept of sustainability, dozens of “children” came into being and became part of the daily lives of companies, causing profound changes in production processes. Due to the speed with which they are being adopted, they demonstrate unparalleled power to bring about a great revolution.

The concepts surrounding sustainability are wonderful, as they propose, above all, reversing and preventing the destruction of natural resources by man himself, placing emphasis on the preservation of forests, rivers and biodiversity. They force companies to treat waste, take care of water and clean the air, in addition to making the difficult energy transition to replace fossil fuels with clean and renewable energy sources.

As expected, sugar cane, with its almost 10 million hectares of cultivation and a production of 660 million tons, has made its contribution. Sugarcane, this renewable source of energy, has once again gained importance, as, together with corn, they are raw materials for the production of fuel ethanol, whose gas emissions are four times lower than those of gasoline vehicles. A ratio of around 37 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven versus 155 grams per kilometer for pure gasoline.

The sugar-energy sector will be able to increase its contribution, as it has been proven that the gasification of ethanol is one of the best sources of production of hydrogen fuel, green hydrogen, which is totally clean and can be produced and exported on a large scale. In the production of green hydrogen, there is a high demand for electrical energy produced through sugarcane bagasse. The sector has become a perfect example of a closed circuit circular economy, in which nothing is lost and everything is transformed.

There will be a great demand for investments in the order of billions of dollars in equipment, specialized labor, inputs, infrastructure, etc. Brazil also needs to regulate procedures to avoid distortions and consolidate the requirements of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

However, there are still many exaggerations on the part of environmentalists in the quest to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions. Therefore, agribusiness runs a serious risk of being penalized if adequate protection for food safety is not provided. For example: how to avoid gas emissions from flatulence in ruminant cattle? How to avoid carbon dioxide emissions from the fermentation of sugarcane juice? When will it be possible to replace the high volumes of diesel oil used in machines in agricultural operations and in the transportation of sugarcane production? All of this has been questioned and solutions will come, however, gradually.

It is important, at this moment, to be aware of the known opportunists on duty, who take advantage of the situation to join this wave, distorting the original principles of sustainability for their own benefit or that of some political ideology. There is a risk of using the climate as a smokescreen to hide old socio-environmental problems and even increase taxes.

Due to strong international pressure on agribusiness, rural producers began to be haunted by the possibility of land expropriation, environmental fines, cutting of financing, in addition to bans on exporting their products. There may also be a clear deviation from the purpose and an evident distortion of the good intentions registered at COP92 and endorsed in the last climate convention.

In Brazil, the State wishes to take advantage of the opportunity for domination to create the Green Seal and the Amazon Seal to dictate socio-environmental rules to producers and exporters of agricultural products, without having any ability to audit processes, even though it is not the sector's competence. These measures to mitigate Greenhouse Gases and protect the environment cannot become an irresponsible block on the country's development.

The interpretation of socio-environmental laws and measures, often distorted by the judiciary and misuse due to political interests, has already delayed the completion of several works, such as highways, railways, dams, the exploration of large potassium reserves, as found in indigenous reserves, and preventing the exploration of new oil wells in protected areas, among others.

Environmental, social and corporate governance policies in companies are also in the wake of this wave of political correctness and the mitigation of Greenhouse Gas emissions.

This is yet another proposal presented by the controversial United Nations in 2004, reinforcing the concepts of Globalism. These are management principles that promise to bring greater well-being to employees, respect the principles of preserving the environment and also guarantee business profitability. Thus, a new wave of conduct adjustment was triggered, but it is still unknown what its true impact on companies' production costs will be. Many of them rushed to obtain certifications and adopt environmental, social and corporate governance to appear on their balance sheets to have guaranteed access to bank financing.

Would the environmental, social and corporate governance system be another fad like many others that have passed through companies in recent years? And isn’t agribusiness already covered enough? It would be very prudent for the environmental, social and corporate governance system, before being required, to have a special development for agribusiness, as it should not be forgotten that rural producers like, above all, land, air, sun and rain.

The sugarcane sector in Brazil has been reviewing and improving all its agricultural practices, aiming at maximum mitigation of Greenhouse Gas emissions. New technologies and major changes have been implemented so far, which include the following objectives: review of soil conservation practices, reduction of agricultural operations that use a lot of energy, direct planting on crop residues, development of multifunctional equipment, use of organic waste of animal origin to partially replace nitrogen fertilizer, use of more aggressive varieties for rapid inter-row closure to reduce the use of herbicides, maximize the use of industrial waste, use of soil regenerative practices, rotating with a mix of cover crops and legumes, use of bio-inputs based on beneficial microorganisms to control pests and diseases, rationalization of water use in irrigation, harvesting of almost 100% of sugarcane without prior burning, adequate management or collection of straw for energy production and, finally, continuous search for improvements in non-gas emitting agro-industrial processes.

It is expected that this will promote major changes in management and a significant improvement in the efficiency of production processes, with the conversion of these gains into decarbonization certificates, an increase in agro-industrial productivity and, consequently, financial dividends for companies. It's not good?