O tema dos biocombustíveis volta a estar em foco com o comunicado emitido ontem pelo COPA-COGECA que avisa que sem uma política de uso sustentável dos mesmos, a UE corre o risco de não conseguir cumprir as metas para a redução da emissão de gases de estufa.
A utilização de produção agrícola para a produção de combustíveis tem tido uma forte oposição de vários sectores que usam o argumento da imoralidade do uso destes produtos para um destino diferente do da alimentação.
Neste momento, com o aumento dos preços dos produtos agrícolas à escala mundial, estas pressões tornam-se mais fortes em toda a linha.
Parece-me que realmente a UE tem de definir uma política sustentável e executável de forma a que a utilização dos biocombustíveis garanta não só o cumprimento das metas propostas em matéria de ambiente, mas também alguma independência relativamente aos preços do petróleo. Veja-se que o petróleo desceu desde segunda feira e em Portugal o Gasóleo manteve-se estável e a gasolina subiu ligeiramente (apesar de ser cedo para se exigir uma mudança, quando a situação é a inversa os aumentos são quase imediatos)
Outro dos pontos focados no comunicado é o da baixa utilização da terra arável na UE. o aumento desta seria uma forma de contrariar os opositores dos biocombustíveis e aumentar o emprego e a economia.
Deixo-vos com o comunicado do COPA-COGECA:
Press Release
COPA-COGECA WARNS THAT WITHOUT SUSTAINABLE BIOFUEL USE IN EU, EU
RUNS RISK OF FAILING TO MEET TARGETS FOR CUTTING GREENHOUSE GAS
EMISSIONS
Copa-Cogeca warned at a major seminar today that without sustainable biofuel use in the EU,
the EU runs the risk of failing to meet its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.
Speaking at the Seminar, which was organised by Copa-Cogeca with the support of BDBe,
ePURE and UFOP, Copa-Cogeca Secretary-General Pekka Pesonen stressed “Whilst food
production is the main objective of farming, biofuels offer many advantages in terms of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions, providing employment in EU rural areas. And they can be produced
in the EU in a sustainable way, without being responsible for indirect land-use changes in non-
EU countries”.
He continued:”This is because not all available arable land in the EU is farmed. In addition, only
part of the oilseed, cereals and sugar beet crop used to produce biofuels are actually converted
into energy. The majority stays in the feed sector, with protein-rich by-products from biofuel
production helping the EU to reduce its heavy dependence on imported animal feed. Increased
biofuel production in the EU also relieves land pressures in non-EU countries and helps to
combat deforestation of tropical rainforests. It would also reduce the price of animal feed, which
is currently hitting EU livestock farmers hard”.
Mr Pesonen went on to call for EU agriculture, energy, environmental and trade policies to be
consistent. “The EU biofuels/bioliquids sector must not be penalised or left at a disadvantage if
other EU policies include measures which restrict productivity improvements in agriculture or
cause the EU to outsource production. This would only result in deforestation and higher
emissions in non-EU countries which runs counter to the EU’s objectives”.
Li este artigo muito interessante na Reuters. Parece que o mercado mundial de Biomassa para energia pode começar finalmente a funcionar...
ResponderEliminarVejam o artigo:
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON | Mon May 16, 2011 12:38pm EDT
(Reuters) - The APX-Endex energy exchange and the Port of Rotterdam will launch an exchange-traded wood fuel product by the end of the year, the first of its kind, the exchange told Reuters on Monday.
The global biomass market is growing as a result of emerging economy demand and European Union targets to replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy, but there are still few international pricing benchmarks.
APX-Endex and the Port of Rotterdam said last year they would investigate the possibility of an exchange-traded product.
They would launch the product -- based on industrial wood pellets -- by the end of 2011, the exchange said on Monday, as they and various partners developed standardized contracts and specifications.
"It is difficult to say who will sign up as a trading member from the beginning, we aim to have 8-10 members to start with," said an energy exchange spokeswoman.
The quoted price would be based on delivery in Rotterdam, which APX-Endex said accounted for about 15 percent of the 8-10 million ton global annual wood pellet production.
The two companies were still developing the exact product specifications which would enable a standardized contract.
One reason for a more general delay in the development of biomass as a commodity is because of uncertainty in the key European Union market, say analysts and investors.
The European Commission is deciding whether it needs to toughen its "sustainability criteria," which are meant to help its member states avoid supporting bio-energy products which compete with food production or damage natural forests including rainforests.
"Sustainability criteria are a specific feature for this market, but the Industrial Wood Pellet Buyers initiative (IWPB) is working on that part to come to standardization. We will probably adhere to the outcome of this initiative," said the APX-Endex spokeswoman.
Mais um artigo interessantíssimo da Reuters. Este mercado da bioenergia está mesmo a arrancar!!!
ResponderEliminarAnalysis: Wood fuel poised to be next global commodity
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Green Business »
By Gerard Wynn
LONDON | Thu May 19, 2011 9:47am EDT
(Reuters) - Wood fuel, one of the oldest energy sources on the planet, could become the newest commodity market if it can overcome supply limits and green concerns as demand grows for renewable energy.
Supply constraints are starting to put wood fuel into competition with the paper industry, experts say, in an uneasy reminder of existing tension between the food industry and companies making biofuels from food crops.
In theory burning wood and crop waste emits less carbon than fossil fuels because it simply returns to the air carbon accumulated by plants as they grow, but that balance breaks down if stock is not replanted, or natural forests are logged.
In the meantime, utilities are burning biomass in ever greater amounts and now want price certainty and derivatives to manage their cost exposure in forward power sales, although European policymakers are mulling limits on subsidies for burning wood fuel given concerns about deforestation.
"It's coming very fast," said John Bingham, a director at consultants Hawkins Wright, referring to the development of an open market, and citing Eurostat data showing EU imports of wood pellets up 42 percent last year.
He saw increasing evidence of a larger scale market including big producers of wood pellets in Europe and North America and big intermediaries, such as Cargill and Gazprom, to balance large utility buyers.
Shaped wood pellets are made for the energy sector, while raw wood chips are used mostly by the paper industry.
The energy exchange APX-Endex is working with the Port of Rotterdam to supply an exchange-traded pellet product this year, while index provider FOEX has joined up with specialists Wood Resources International (WRI) for a global wood chip index.
Those developments herald a gradual shift to a more transparent market beyond bilateral deals between suppliers and users, such as timber companies and utilities.
APPETITE
Indicating the size of appetite, Britain's biggest coal-fired power plant, Drax, burned nearly 1 million tonnes of biomass last year, more than double previous years, while burning ten times that amount of coal.
Drax says biomass expansion depends on clearer UK support, under power market reforms to be announced before the summer. Its sources include straw and energy crops such as miscanthus.
Wood pellets have about 70 percent of the calorific value of coal, experts say.
The British arm of German utility RWE, RWE npower will this year convert a coal plant near London to burn biomass.
(continua no próx comentário)
The aging plant will burn 2 million tonnes through 2015, when it is due to close, said a spokesman who added the facility would be a test bed for the alternative fuel.
ResponderEliminarThat compares with domestic UK wood fuel production, excluding recycled or waste wood, of about 1.5 million tonnes annually, according to Forestry Commission data, underlining a need for a global trade.
It is an open question whether there is enough volume for an open market, however, given utilities have already tied up large volumes in long contracts, or produce pellets for themselves, said WRI's Hakan Ekstrom.
If EU wood fuel subsidies were more predictable and reliable -- for example the UK support to be announced in the next few weeks -- then utilities would commit to buy bigger volumes, and so motivate more supply, traders say.
But new utility demand for wood fuel, subsidized by EU low-carbon incentives, may also impact the paper and even construction industries, Ekstrom added.
"The concern is that the energy industry is starting to compete with pulp in particular but even MDF or particle board plants. They don't like to see that the energy sector is subsidized so that they can pay more for chips and pulp logs.
"That's starting to be a problem or an issue in Europe, in North America, Latin America."
GREEN?
And that supply issue drives concerns whether a burgeoning wood fuel market may damage natural forests.
"It's a completely crazy idea that we can burn our way out of climate change," said Robert Palgrave from the green group Biofuelwatch UK, who preferred wind power or energy efficiency.
Palgrave was among two dozen or so protesters outside an Environmental Finance biomass conference in London last week.
Such concerns are reflected in a European Commission study of the environmental impact of biomass incentives.
The Commission will decide this year whether to propose new eligibility rules, called sustainability criteria, for biomass subsidies.
"The Commission intends to publish the next report by the end of the year, as requested," said a spokeswoman. The biomass industry says it is working on its own green standards, and that plantation forests and waste will be the main sources of supply.
(Editing by Keiron Henderson)
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