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Primeiro Grupo de Pesquisa sobre biocombustíveis e mudanças climáticas hoje apoiado pelo Instituto Salvia - ISSA em parceria com pesquisadores e estudiosos da Universidade de Brasília, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Universidade da Califórnia Berkeley, Universidade de Yale, Universidade de Maryland, Universiteit van Amsterdam/CEDLA, Universidade de São Paulo, Universidade Federal do Goiás e Universidade Federal do Tocantins.
Resumo das Notícias, sempre com os links para os artigos originais, sobre petróleo, gás, energia e outros assuntos relevantes. Os links mais antigos estão no fim da página, em Arquivo do Blog. Links to sources in English.
Authors: Andrade, R.M.T.; Miccolis, A
This paper maps out and analyses the wide range of policies and players that have shaped the phenomenal rise of biofuels in Brazil, drawing comparisons between the ethanol and biodiesel industries. The sugarcane-ethanol sector’s expansion has been characterised by distinct waves of regulation and deregulation, heavy private investment and public financing for infrastructure, research and development. Close links with energy and climate change–related policies, the dualfuel car revolution, liberal foreign direct investment policies and fiscal and financial incentives have also played important roles. Questions are being raised about human rights and environmental justice due to poor working conditions, land concentration and displacement of smallholders as well as environmental impacts, especially in South-Central and Northeastern Brazil. The sugarcane-ethanol industry has sought to address these claims through voluntary governance and certification mechanisms. The Brazilian Government has also taken decisive action to forbid sugarcane expansion into sensitive ecosystems. Recent biodiesel feedstock policies aimed at smallholders have delivered substantial savings (US$1 billion/year) by substituting diesel imports, and made progress towards ‘social inclusion’. But these programs have fallen short of targets, as the prevailing feedstock is still soybeans followed by beef tallow, with production and processing still concentrated in the hands of large-scale soybean farmers and cattle ranchers. Despite robust and well-intended environmental, rural development and fiscal policies to support smallholders, some policies are extremely difficult to enforce given structural constraints faced by smallholders and the lack of adequate governance mechanisms.
One of the most frustrating and stubborn aftereffects of Tropical Storm Irene has been the inability to restore electricity to swaths of the Northeast, especially in Connecticut, where roughly 300,000 customers were still without power on Wednesday night. Some whole towns in New England were cut off, while almost every home and business in New York City had been running on full power for days.
The slow restoration of the connections needed to heat water, run refrigerators and recharge cellphones prompted a lot of grumbling from elected officials and their constituents, most of it aimed at big utility companies. And the complaints did not always find sympathy: Connecticut Light and Power, the state's largest utility, said it might seek to raise rates to offset the $75 million in costs it expected to incur repairing its grid.
As the public dissatisfaction rose, so did the death toll from the storm, which caused relentless flooding that continued to create hazardous conditions from Vermont to Virginia. The National Guard airlifted supplies to 13 towns in Vermont left stranded by washed-out roads, while some residents of the Catskills region of New York subsisted on canned spaghetti heated on outdoor grills. In Connecticut, the start of the school year was postponed until next week while high schools were turned into shelters and libraries into makeshift Internet cafes.
At least 45 deaths have been attributed to the storm, including that of a 50-year-old man who was sucked into a sewer pipe on Wednesday while trying to drain his property in Lawrence Township, N.J.
Fixing broken lines was complicated by a lack of repair crews, and in some places, flooding. Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said water had seeped into about 40 percent of the homes in Lincoln Park, Passaic County, and he repeated his demand that President Obama declare the state a disaster area. Earlier in the day, the president declared several flood-ravaged counties in upstate New York a "major disaster."
Though all of New Jersey's rivers had finally crested, Mr. Christie said several, including the Passaic River, would quite likely remain at dangerously high levels for another day or two. Because of damage to water treatment facilities, more than a dozen municipalities continued to ask their residents to boil water. Meanwhile, some 10,000 residents, mostly from Morris and Passaic Counties, remained evacuated from flooded neighborhoods, and 765 people stayed in 16 shelters.
"We're clearly not out of the woods yet," said Mr. Christie, who saw some of the worst-hit areas with Janet Napolitano, the federal secretary of homeland security, and W. Craig Fugate, the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
In New Jersey, about 20 percent of those who lost electricity, or 179,000 customers, still had none. In New York, about 287,000 customers had no power, more than half of them on Long Island. All told, more than one million homes and businesses on the East Coast were still waiting for electricity to be restored.
For many of those without power, the main complaint was a lack of solid information about how long their plight would last. Some said they would rather hear that the electricity would be off for a week than to be left wondering.
To allay some of that confusion, elected officials took to dragging utility executives before the television cameras to answer questions. Gov. Dannel P. Malloy of Connecticut brought top executives of the state's two main power providers along to a news conference on Tuesday evening. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo took the same tack on Wednesday, insisting that Mark S. Lynch, the president of New York State Electrical and Gas, make public appearances in areas without electrical service.
Officials in the Cuomo administration have been frustrated by the difficulty they have encountered in getting some utilities to communicate, according to one official who was not authorized to speak publicly. When one of Mr. Cuomo's advisers called the state's utilities to press them to prepare for the cleanup, he had to track down a senior executive of National Grid in Europe, the official said. The company, which owns utilities in New York, has its headquarters in England.
Her neighbor Janine Soule, 40, chimed in: "Another thing that's bothering a lot of people is that we have no phones. I can't get in touch with my mom; I can't get in touch with anybody."
Ms. Napolitano accompanied Mr. Cuomo on a tour of Prattsville on Wednesday; the governor characterized the town as the hardest hit in the state.
In Easton, Conn., Lina Siciliano, 62, said the protracted loss of power, supplied by United Illuminating Company, was much more than an inconvenience.
"I don't know what to say, I'm so upset," said Ms. Siciliano, whose father and injured mother came to stay with her after losing power at their home in upstate New York. "I have two 84-year-old people in the house. All my insulin went bad. All the food in the refrigerator and freezer went bad."
Ms. Siciliano said she had called the utility six times. "I couldn't get through," she said. The municipal workers cutting trees opposite her house told her she might have to wait another four or five days. She said her patience would run out before then.
"People just didn't feel that the utility companies' actions matched what they had been told," United States Representative Joe Courtney said after surveying the damage in his district in eastern Connecticut. "The execution just wasn't there. That's pretty darn frustrating."
Mr. Courtney said he and Governor Malloy had just met with residents of several towns where most of the homes have not had their power restored. In North Stonington, which was completely dark, Mr. Courtney said they were told no repair crews had shown up yet.
Jeff Butler, the president of Connecticut Light and Power, said the company would have 1,200 crews on the job by Friday, 400 of them to clear trees and branches and 800 to repair fallen and tangled overhead lines. Most of those crews were called in from other states. Some crews came from as far away as British Columbia.
Securing enough help was complicated by the size of the storm, Mr. Courtney said. About 100 of the crews that the utility had requested from Quebec were en route to Connecticut when they were recalled to repair the damage that the storm did there, he explained.
Despite the scope of the restoration project it faced, the utility was no longer receiving a break from many of its customers by Wednesday afternoon. In the emergency operations center in Ridgefield, a town constable, Tom Belote, absorbed some residents' wrath. Even his wife had complained, he said, about the town's decision to cut off all power after the storm knocked out electricity to more than 90 percent of the homes on Sunday.
Mr. Belote's house was in one of the few neighborhoods that had been spared. But it too went dark after town officials agreed with the utility that it would be best to eliminate the risks of electrocution while crews worked to restore the power.
"After four days of answering phone calls from my neighbors, I can say a number of people were frustrated," Mr. Belote said. "For some of them, I tell them my tale of woe and it seems to work. For others, I just take the verbal abuse. I'm used to it."
Mr. Butler, the utility executive, did not assuage the rising ire when he said on Wednesday that the company would explore ways to recoup the costs of restoration from its customers. Utilities are allowed to do that, but given customers' anger, nobody was in the mood to consider that possibility.
Reporting was contributed by Sam Dolnick from Paterson, N.J.; Kristin Hussey and Robert Davey from Connecticut; Thomas Kaplan from New York; Noah Rosenberg from Prattsville, N.Y.; and Dirk Van Susteren from Calais, Vt.
Esta Pesquisa faz parte do NUGOBIO...
Pesquisadores da UFT e Yale mapearão cadeias produtivas agroenergéticas do TO |
Por Jaqueline Carrara | |
23 de agosto de 2011 | |
Uma pesquisa da Universidade Federal do Tocantins (UFT), com participação do Centro de Estudos Ambientais da Universidade de Yale (EUA), fará um diagnóstico de todas as etapas da cadeia produtiva agroenergética do Tocantins, do plantio das sementes à produção do biocombustível e de seus derivados. A primeira reunião do grupo de pesquisadores, formado pelos professores da UFT Marcus Finco, Waldecy Rodrigues e Fernanda Finco, além de Robert Bailis (Yale), foi realizada nesta segunda-feira (22) no Campus de Palmas.
O objetivo do estudo é produzir um mapeamento inédito no Estado que possa também embasar as políticas públicas do setor, sejam voltadas ao aspecto econômico, social ou ambiental. "Vamos buscar entender o panorama atual e os desdobramentos da produção agroenergética tocantinense, quais os impactos ambientais e sociais, a segurança alimentar, quais políticas existem ou deveriam existir; ir além do agronegócio", explica Marcus Finco. De acordo com Finco, a participação do professor americano contribui justamente para ampliar a diversidade de olhares sobre o tema. A linha de pesquisa de Bailis é pouco encontrada entre estudiosos brasileiros. "Isso complementa a nossa pesquisa, tornando esse mapeamento ainda mais diverso e consistente". Bailis ficará a cargo da análise do ciclo de vida das sementes utilizadas na produção agroenergética, com enfoque diferencial para o balanço de carbono e energético dessas oleaginosas, buscando respostas a uma maior sustentabilidade ambiental da produção. Pesquisadores na primeira reunião: Robert Bailis, Waldecy Rodrigues, Fernanda Finco e Marcus Finco (esq. para dir.) Olhar brasileiro - "Vamos chegar até os subprodutos das sementes, quais os fatores impactantes ou agregadores na economia, no cultivo, na sociedade", diz Bailis. Para ele, uma das grandes diferenças do estudo da agroenergia no Brasil está na importância dada pelo país às questões sociais, pois a produção ainda está bastante ligada à agricultura familiar. "Nos Estados Unidos, a produção agroenergética está vinculada a grandes empresas, ao agronegócio de larga escala. Basicamente temos o milho e a soja dominados por políticas bastante direcionadas ao investimento econômico; já aqui o rol de possibilidades dessa produção é muito maior e com muitas pessoas dependendo da produtividade. Por isso a atenção à inclusão social", afirma o professor americano. A pesquisa, intitulada Cadeias Produtivas Agroenergéticas e Desenvolvimento Territorial no Tocantins: Uma Abordagem Interdisciplinar, inicia no mês de outubro e terá duração de três anos. A iniciativa está ligada ao Mestrado em Desenvolvimento Regional da UFT e foi aprovada pelo Programa de Apoio a Núcleos de Excelência (Pronex), financiado pelo Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) e Governo do Estado. |
Christian Brannstroma, , , Lisa Rauschb, , J. Christopher Brownb, , Renata Marson Teixeira de Andradec, and Andrew Miccolisd,
a Department of Geography, 810 O&M Building, 3147 TAMU, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
b Department of Geography, 1475 Jayhawk Blvd, 213 Lindley Hall, University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS 66045-7613, USA
c Programa de Pós-Graduação em Planejamento e Gestão Ambiental, Universidade Católica de Brasília, SGAN 916 sala 222, 70790-160 Brasília, Brazil
d ComSensos Consultoria, CLN 215 Bloco B 213 70874-512 Brasília, Brazil
“Soft” or “hybrid” governance holds considerable promise in attempts to reconfigure state-market–society relationships toward improved environmental outcomes. “Soft” governance processes in Brazil's globally competitive, high-input/output agriculture sector have major implications for landuse policies. Here we identify and analyze two emergent processes, a compliance regime and bioregion-based market exclusion approach, that stand out amid a background of conflicts between agricultural land uses and environmental regulation. We address the effectiveness of “soft” governance, using a framework that focuses on interactions among state and non-state actors, use of geographic information, relations to global processes, and discourse. These policies may play an important role in bridging the divide between environmental and agricultural interests, but market and state actors, and the uneven effects of globalization, will influence effectiveness. Our framework for analyzing governance processes should complement future work that directly measures environmental outcomes.
Keywords: Agriculture; Environment; Governance; Brazil
A equipe do Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Meio Ambiente (LIMA/COPPE/UFRJ), parceiro do NUGOBIO, foi convidada para apresentar o artigo "Investments of Oil Majors in Biofuels: Scope, Integration and Diversification" na 34 Conferência Internacional da International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) numa sessão especial sobre "Green Transportation". O artigo responde à pergunta se os biocombustíveis mesmo podem ser consideradas como resposta ao petróleo, e se não fazem parte das mesmas cadeias produtivas.
O resumo original (em inglês) é:
The use of biofuels has been justified by high oil prices, geopolitical instability in the countries that control most of the proven oil reserves as well as environmental concerns. Oil majors are responsible for increasing investments into biofuel joint ventures, R&D and logistics. This paper analyses whether the quality and amount of current major oil companies‟ investments in liquid biofuels can be explained by existing technological lock-ins and whether the occurrence of these investments strengthens existing or creates new technological lock-ins that impede alternative technological pathways. Oil major investments are analyzed taking into account increasing difficulties to access conventional oil reserves and the role of biofuel mandates. The paper finds that while oil companies investments in biofuels are significant, existing technological lock-ins generally persist. Integration and diversification are found to be an integral part of oil majors strategic behavior towards biofuels though strategies can differ substantially from company to company.
Do Nugobio participavam Daniel Fontana Oberling, Prof. Emilio La Rovere e Martin Obermaier. Contamos ainda com a participação fundamental do Prof. Alexandre Szklo, professor do Programa do Planejamento Energético, também da COPPE/UFRJ.
O artigo está disponível no site da conferência! Existe uma versão anterior em portugûes, porém menos elaborada---qualquer dúvida meus colegas e eu estamos ao dispor.
--
Martin Obermaier
Doutorando, Programa de Planejamento Energético - COPPE/UFRJ
Pesquisador, Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Meio Ambiente (LIMA)
Tel/fax: +55 21 2562-8805
http://www.ppe.ufrj.br, www.lima.coppe.ufrj.br
Os debates envolveram discussões sobre vulnerabilidade e resiliência, impactos da mudança do clima sobre a saúde, custo-benefício e eficiência de projetos, questões de gênero ou a complementaridade entre projetos de adaptação e de desenvolvimento sustentável. Tudo isso náo somente na própria conferência (dias 28.3.-31.3.), mas também em oito visitas de campo que precederam o evento em Dhaka (dias 25.3.-27.3.) e em quais os participantes conheciam de perto iniciativas de adaptação em comunidades locais frente uma crescente de degradação ambiental.
Por exemplo, na região de Khulna, agricultores familiares sofrem com a salinização das suas terras agrícolas devido a contínuos processos de desmatamento nas Sundarbans, a maior floresta manguezal halófila do mundo que, durante a maré alta, está quase inteiramente coberto de água salgada. O desmatamento também está responsável para ciclones mais devastadores na região porque a função de proteção das Sundarbans está cada vez mais ameaçada. O IPCC previu no seu últimos relatório um aumento na frequência de ciclones na região, e isso pode tornar a condições de vida dos agricultores intoleráveis.
A imagem de satélite (Fonte: Wikipedia, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundarbans) mostra a floresta em área protegida. O Sundarbans aparece verde profundo, cercado ao norte, por uma paisagem de terras agrícolas, que aparecem em verde claro, cidades, que aparecem em tan, e córregos, que são azuis.
Quais então os possíveis respostas? O consenso sobre onde estamos em termos de CBA pode ser sumarizado em 5 itens:
Porém, as discussões entre os diferentes participantes na excelente conferência também mostravam que permanece incerto se as adaptações incrementais no momento serão suficientes no futuro. Ao final, enquanto a mudança do clima é somente adicional às vulnerabilidades do presente, segundo os modelos do IPCC ela mostrará seu potencial devastador no futuro com maior irregularidade climática e maior frequência de eventos extremos, o que pode anular estratégicas de adaptação hoje chamadas de boas práticas. Somente focando em pequenos passos pode ser insuficiente para uma efetiva e sustentável adaptação.
De qualquer modo adaptação à mudança climática demandará soluções holísticas e pesquisas transdisciplinares envolvendo, entre outros, ciências naturais e sociais, sem esquecer da economia assim como a engenharia para lidar com o imenso tamanho do problema.
Os biocombustíveis podem fazer parte disso? Ainda tem pouco pesquisa em qual medida, por exemplo, o biodiesel a partir da agricultura familiar poderia reduzir vulnerabilidades em “hotspots” climáticos e sociais, como por exemplo o semi-árido nordestino ou na região amazônica. Um atual projeto coordenando pelo Centro de Estudos Integrados do Meio Ambiente e Mudanças Climáticas (Centro Clima), parceiro do NUGOBIO, e financiado pelo MCT/CNPq espera dar mais resultados sobre este assunto.
Para o resumo da conferência CBA5 ver: http://www.iisd.ca/ymb/climate/cba5/ (em inglês)
--
Martin Obermaier
Doutorando, Programa de Planejamento Energético - COPPE/UFRJ
Pesquisador, Laboratório Interdisciplinar de Meio Ambiente (LIMA)
Tel/fax: +55 21 2562-8805
http://www.ppe.ufrj.br, www.lima.coppe.ufrj.br
Caros amiog@s da ECOECO ,
Por favor façam ampla divulgação do Evento abaixo e peço a quem estiver
em Brasília que faça o possível para comparecer. O movimento ruralista
fez uma enorme manifestação em frente ao Congresso Nacional no dia 4/4,
portanto, o coro contra o retrocesso na política ambiental brasileira
precisar mostrar sua energia!!!
Grande abraço da M.Amélia
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: WWF-Brasil Convida: Marcha contra alteração do Código Florestal
Brasileiro
Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 16:38:46 -0300 (BRT)
From: "WWF-Brasil" <no_reply@wwf.org.br>
To: amelia@ufpa.br
Esta pesquisa realizou um estudo das redes de inovação tecnológica no setor sucroenergético, tendo como base a cadeia produtiva do bioetanol de cana-de-açúcar. Para isso, foi feito um estudo de caso com os atores principais atuantes no estado de São Paulo. A metodologia aplicada elaborou a coleta de dados através de entrevistas semi-estruturadas e análise documental. Como resultado final, foi elaborado um mapeamento dos principais agentes do setor, concluiu-se também que há tanto redes abertas quanto fechadas que se intersectam e promovem inovações radicais e incrementais. Sendo que na primeira geração do bioetanol e no cultivo da cana-de-açúcar há uma plataforma tecnológica sólida que contribui para a sustentabilidade econômica, social e ambiental do setor sucroenergético.
The World Agroforestry Center (formerly the International Center for Research in Agroforestry, ICRAF) recently released a report on biodiesel in the Brazilian Amazon. The report looks at agroenergy policy in the Amazon, and highlights "approaches taken by Brazilian Federal and state governments to consider the social and environmental sustainability of soybean and palm oil production in the Amazon." The traditional biodiesel feedstock has been initially soybean, but recent initiatives have been made for the use of palm oil. Interviews with Brazilian policy officials were conducted to examine the extent to which the "palm oil initiatives" are considered sustainable with regard to social and environmental impacts. The paper mentioned that the biodiesel industry and the federal and state governments are taking into account recent studies, which question the "social and environmental sustainability of the oil palm production model currently being adopted in the Amazon." With the present situation, the paper concludes that "palm oil developments will need improved policy and monitoring." The full paper can be accessed at the World Agroforestry website (URL above).
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This article is part of the Crop Biotech Update, a weekly summary of world developments in agri-biotech for developing countries, produced by the Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology,International Service for the Aquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications SEAsiaCenter (ISAAA)
Mamona promove mais a inclusão social que o pinhão-manso, diz pesquisa |
terça, 11 janeiro 2011 . BiodieselBR.com | |
Uma pesquisa realizada no Tocantins apontou resultados curiosos sobre o verdadeiro impacto das culturas de pinhão-manso e mamona na inclusão social de agricultores familiares. Produzida pelo pesquisador Marcus Vinicius Alves Finco, da Universidade Federal do Tocantins, o trabalho foi publicado em dezembro na revista Pesquisa Agropecuária Tropical (PAT), da Universidade Federal de Goiás (UFG). Finco entrevistou produtores rurais em assentamentos de dez municípios da região. Ao analisar as condições econômicas das famílias, ele verificou que no caso da mamona, quanto mais pobres, maior a probabilidade dos agricultores aderirem a cultura. Mas no caso da produção de pinhão-manso, a situação se inverteu: os produtores com melhores recursos tinham maior probabilidade de optar pela nova cultura. Uma das explicações do pesquisador para os resultados tem a ver com as características de cada cultura. Segundo Finco, a mamona é uma cultura anual, com contrato ano a ano. Isso permite que os agricultores deixem o negócio caso julguem que ele não é satisfatório. Já o pinhão-manso tem contrato de dez anos, com previsão de viabilidade econômica só a partir do quarto ano. “Quem tem menos recursos é menos propenso a correr riscos”, avalia. Os resultados mostram, avalia Finco, que no caso do pinhão-manso a inclusão social que é objetivo do programa de biodiesel brasileiro não está acontecendo porque o estímulo a cultura beneficia as famílias de agricultores com mais recursos. Para o pesquisador, a ausência de tratamento diferenciado para cada cultura prejudicou a efetividade do programa brasileiro de biodiesel e do Selo Combustível Social na promoção da inclusão social de agricultores familiares. O artigo completo do pesquisador - O programa brasileiro de biodiesel e os agricultores familiares: qual é a realidade da inclusão social no cerrado? - pode ser acessado na página http://www.revistas.ufg.br/ Rosiane Correia de Freitas - BiodieselBR.com |