1 MITIGATION MEASURES
To reduce the carbon content in the environment for mitigation Brazil has adopted both the strategies:
i. It is working on reducing its anthropogenic emission of gases through various emitting sources. ii. Increasing the sinks of the green house gases.
Its main mitigation measures include production and use of ethanol and sugar-cane bagasse, development of the natural gas industrial market, and use of alternative energy sources for power generation
1.1 Sugarcane production
Sugar production has led to the use of two major alternative sources of energy used—automotive ethanol and sugar-cane bagasse used to generate electricity. These biomass fuels reduced Brazil’s carbon dioxide emissions by 7 percent in 2000. Brazil launched National Alcohol Fuel Program (PRO-ALCOOL) in 1975 to promote ethanol production as a substitute for gasoline. The first oil embargo had shaken the nation, which was then importing to over 80 percent of its oil supply, and the international price of sugar was also very low. Ethanol production was justified to reduce dependence on oil imports and the environmental impacts of energy use, and to create domestic job and income. The government offered a variety of incentives including low-interest loans to build distilleries, ethanol purchase guarantees, favorable pricing relative to gasoline and sales tax reductions (Geller, H. 2002).
From 1985 to 1990, 90% of new cars sold were fueled on pure ethanol. But the rising sugar prices led to ethanol shortages and price hikes, and sales of ethanol-fueled cars fell almost to zero by the late 1990’s.10 About 4 million cars were fueled solely by pure ethanol in 2000, about a quarter of the total automobile fleet.11 But with few ethanol-only cars bei...
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...d would have as consequence the carbon intensity reduction of the economy in the medium to long terms. It’s important to emphasize that NAMAS definition is wide enough for also embracing actions that would happen for motivations of another nature, but that result in reductions of emissions significantly. NAMAS should include policies and measures in all sectors with high potential of mitigation. They can also happen in different action levels and scales: project level, sector or also programmatic or national one, constituting a mark to integrate actions aiming at the reduction of the carbon in an economy.
3 CONCLUSION
Brazil has focused on low carbon development strategy as it had worked on mitigation through enhancement of sinks and reducing GHG’s and at the same time it spends in developing newer renewable technologies and promotes it for development.
Brazil is the largest country in South America and in Latin America, fifth largest in the world. It is one of the more diverse countries in the world, with different cultures and ethnicities. Brazil’s type of government is a Federal Republic. Brazil is on its way to growing out of its emerging market status and becoming one of the richest and most developed countries on earth. Brazil’s human, mineral, and agricultural resources are on par with those of the United States and Canada, and it has a few great opportunities to take advantage of in order to continue the growth it’s been experiencing over the past 20 years. Brazil, known for its natural resources, find in energy one of the country’s main ways of resources, being either oil and natural gas or biofuels and solar/wind power.
Stauffer, Nancy. ”MIT ethanol analysis confirms benefits of biofuels.” Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. January 2007.
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