Essay About Bio-Ethanol And Dutch Society

Sustainability of Bioethanol
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Executive summary
The Dutch society recognizes the need for sustainable production and use of biomass. This has been expressed
by environmental groups and the Parliament. The Dutch government decided to seek solutions by developing
sustainability criteria and certification of biomass by a commission sustainable production of biomass
(duurzame productie van biomassa, DPB). Between January 2006 and July 2006 these criteria have been
developed. Parallel to these developments, in February 2006 this project was commissioned by SenterNovem
on behalf of the Dutch Ministry for Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment. As Brazil is one of the
most likely countries to export bio-ethanol from sugar cane to the Netherlands, the sustainability of Brazilian
bio-ethanol is the main topic of this report.
The main objective of this report was a comparison of Dutch sustainability criteria and the current Brazilian
practice, and quantification of the consequences for ethanol production in terms of production method and
production costs if these sustainability criteria are applied. To this end, the Dutch sustainability demands for
bio-ethanol were investigated, including stakeholder consultation in the Netherlands (NGO’s, industry), and
an extensive assessment of the current ecological, economic and social impacts of ethanol production based
on sugar cane in Brazil was carried out.
While the current study contains many different types of uncertainties, no prohibitive reasons where identified
why ethanol from SДЈo Paulo principally could not meet the Dutch sustainability standards set for 2007. In
many impact categories, Brazilian ethanol from sugar cane scores average to (very) positive, see also table I
for a summary. For a number of other criteria, problems are identified, but it also appears that these may differ
strongly between the individual plants. Furthermore, for most of these issues, measures can be identified to
improve performance (when needed).
For the future and the whole of Brazil, too many uncertainties remain to determine whether also additional
criteria from 2011 onwards can be met. First of all, it is as yet unclear how additional land use for sugar cane
may cause indirect / induced land-use, and how large the actual impacts will be on land use, biodiversity etc.
Second, it is also uncertain whether and how the Dutch sustainability criteria will deal with these indirect
impacts, as these criteria are not yet clearly defined.
It is important to recognize that sustainability criteria