ENVIRONMENTAL
IMPACT
ASSESSMENT
AND
SUGARCANE
FOR
ETHANOL PRODUCTION IN SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL: A TOOL FOR
SUSTAINABILITY?
Authors: Ferreira¹, H.C., Ferreira², L.C., Barata³, M.M.L., Soares4, W.L
¹Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública Sérgio Arouca (ENSP), Fundação Oswaldo
Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil. E-mail: [email protected]
²Laboratório de tecnologia, gestão de negócios e meio ambiente (LATEC) –
Universidade Federal Fluminense
³Instituto Oswaldo Cruz – Fundação Oswaldo Cruz
4
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE)
Resume
This article analyzes the contribution of environmental impact studies (EIS) for
the sustainability of biofuels production in Brazil. First of all, there is a presentation of
the process of environmental impact assessment and the brazilian environmental
legislation, as well as its objectives and competencies. Then it introduces the issue of
biofuels as a factor of sustainable development and its overview in Brazil, as well as its
controversies and
impacts discussed
and noted. An
article
that analyzed
32
Environmental Impact Studies (EIS) of sugarcane sector (ethanol is the main biofuel
produced in Brazil) in the state of São Paulo shown that some impacts (specially the
social ones) are less frequent than others in these kind of document. It was observed that
some impacts, despite of the great relevance in the literature such as emissions of
greenhouse gases and food security, are rarely considered in these EIS. Additionally, the
health and social local impacts are less addressed than environmental impacts,
suggesting that the studies are not including local people demands. EIS aims to be a
democratic tool, following sustainability principles and including social needs.
Therefore, in Brazil, EIS’s in the sugar cane sector may not be addressing appropriately
the impacts and respecting the sustainability and democratic principles.
'IAIA12 Conference Proceedings'
Energy Future The Role of Impact Assessment
32nd Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment
27 May- 1 June 2012, Centro de Congresso da Alfândega, Porto - Portugal (www.iaia.org)
2
Introduction
Given the current energy crisis, as it approaches the so-called ''peak oil'', the trend
of rising prices for fossil fuels is certain (McMICHAEL, 2010). Moreover, the
environmental issue is more present on political agendas. Global warming and climate
change are main problems, which result of increasing concentrations of greenhouse
gases (GHG) in the atmosphere, like CO2, CH4 and NO2. In this context, biofuels are
presented as ''a perfect solution'', classified as a renewable fuel and emitting less
GHG´s. In Brazil, the main biofuel is the ethanol from sugar cane, but several problems
and impacts are pointed out in the literature (SZMERCSANYI, & GONÇALVES,
2009).
This study aims to analyze how these environmental and social impacts of the sugar
cane production are addressed, and to compare them to the social demands and concerns
described by the literature in general.
Material and methods
To address these impacts, it is taken for reference one article that analyzes sugar
cane production in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. São Paulo, located in southeastern
Brazil, is the largest producer of sugar cane in the country, accounting for 60% of
national production (CASTELI, 2011). Casteli (2011) analyzed 32 environmental
impact studies (EIS) of sugar cane for ethanol production enterprises in São Paulo, in
the period 2006 – 2009, and found considerable variation in the topics covered by the
studies, as in figure 1.
The author points out that the socio-economic impacts are poorly addressed by
the EIS’s. However, according to the definition of environmental impact in article 1 of
Resolution CONAMA 01/86 in brazilian legislation:(BRASIL, 1986):
''[Environmental impact is] any change in physical, chemical and biological
environment, caused by any form of matter or energy resulting from human activities
that directly or indirectly affect:
I - health, safety and welfare of the population;
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II - the social and economic activities;
III - the biota;
IV - the aesthetic and sanitary conditions of the environment;
V - the quality of environmental resources.''
FIGURE 1: Frequency of different topics in the 32 environmental impact studies of
sugar cane projects conducted between 2006 – 2009 in São Paulo, Brazil.
Source: CASTELI (2011)
To address the literature concerns, it is taken for reference the study made by
Ridley and colleagues (2012). They did an analysis involving more than 1600 articles
published between 2000 and 2009, seeking to know what are the most widely discussed
subjects in the scientific literature about the production of biofuels.
Among the social and environmental impacts, the topic of greenhouse gases is the
most discussed (35%), followed by water resources, land-use change, food security
(23%), soil resources, air quality, biodiversity and human health (2%) (Figure 2 ).
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FIGURE 2: Total number of articles and percentage of articles for topics within the
theme Environment and human well-being.
Source: Adapted from RIDLEY et al (2012).
Discussion
Due to the multidisciplinary characteristics of environmental problems, four roles
complement each other to support responsible decision-making (SÁNCHEZ, 2008):
*Instrument for decision support;
*Instrument for help with the design of projects;
*Instrument of negotiation between social actors;
*Instrument for environmental management.
GHG emissions and food security are the impacts less addressed in the EIS, despite
being important impacts according to the literature.
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The impact of greater relevance in the specific scientific literature (GHG
Emissions) is rarely addressed by EIS's, which is unexpected given that this is precisely
one of the main positive impacts which justify the political incentives for the production
of biofuels as climate change mitigation.
Moreover, the issue of food security was the least approached in these EIS's. It is
worth noting that the issue of food security is a key issue for the production of biofuels,
being the biggest target of criticism in general (SCHAFFEL, 2010; McMICHAEL,
2009). For this reason, Jean Ziegler, a member of the United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization (FAO), calls the biofuel production a ‘’crime against
humanity’’ (FAST, 2009). Thus, the question is: what is society concerned with and
what are EIS’s addressing?
Conclusion
As GHG emissions and food security are of great relevance to a range of social
actors, and since these two topics are scarce in the EIS's, the social demands about these
impacts do not seem to be completely covered by the EIS’s. Additionally, the health and
social local impacts are less addressed than environmental impacts, suggesting that the
studies are not including local people demands..
EIS aims to be a democratic tool, following sustainability principles and including
social needs. As explained above, these principles are not being widely applied. Thus, It
is necessary to question if this tool (EIS) is doing what it is supposed to. Therefore, in
Brazil, EIS’s in the sugar cane sector may not be addressing appropriately the impacts
and respecting the sustainability and democratic principles.
References
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