A bit of both

The Brazilian government plans to overhaul the country's energy basket with more emphasis on renewable resources, while continuing to plan for future expansion of local production of traditional fossil fuels.

Seventy-five percent of Brazil's energy comes from hydroelectric power, and the government plans to build more such stations, but without causing further deforestation. This will be done by siting more carefully, as also by using underwater river turbines. The government expects to produce 50 million megawatts from this kind of hydroelectric plant in the next two years. The Environment Ministry now requires new thermoelectric plants fuelled by coal or diesel to compensate for their greenhouse gas emissions by planting trees.

The government will invest more in renewable energy. Already 46 percent of the Brazilian energy mix is based on renewable sources, while ethanol accounts for 16 percent. Use of flex-fuel motors in new vehicles is claimed to have cut Brazil's emissions of carbon dioxide by 50 million tonnes since 2003.

The criticism against biofuels and how the process of farming crops like sugarcane in Brazil and maize in the United States releases amounts of nitrous oxide, another greenhouse gas, that more than counteract the benefit of lowering emissions of carbon dioxide generated by burning ethanol instead of gasoline is countered by an argument that it is degraded and arid land that is being used.

According to the government, only one percent of the land suitable for agriculture in Brazil is used to grow sugarcane. Ethanol production notwithstanding, neither the government nor Petrobras are willing to stop producing oil and natural gas, or even to increase output. Petrobras currently produces 1.9 million barrels of crude per day.

Studies may keep calling attention to the hard facts of fossil fuels and climate change, is it going to make any change to nations that see independent reserves as their lifeline to rapid growth?