Russia-Ukraine war has focused attention on the dependence on external energy sources that many countries experience, such as the sharp volatility of oil prices and the difficulty of access to fuels such as diesel. Brazil chose to export oil and import gasoline and diesel derivatives, in a financial account that was positive in times of supply abundance, but which now shows its harmful face, by weakening energy security and causing side effects: it feeds inflation, anarchise prices and cost forecasts in virtually all sectors,  among other consequences.

It is something to be fought urgently, by the government, with the support and active participation of society. In the context of war and unpredictability, the country must pay full attention to the expansion of its potential to produce, use and export biofuels. There are plenty of raw materials such as soy to manufacture biodiesel and sugar cane for ethanol.The biodiesel industry is much newer than ethanol. There are 55 plants in 14 states, which are expected to produce 6.2 billion liters this year, but with the capacity to double this production. It is strategic to reduce the dependence of billion-dollar and dollar diesel imports and gradually raise the biodiesel content to this fossil fuel, as it had been done until 2021. It means, in practice, exchanging millions of dollars spent to create businesses and jobs in other countries with imports, for investments in national biodiesel and thus internalizing the generation of jobs, income and taxes.

The Joint Parliamentary Front of Biodiesel (FPBio), of the National Congress, brings together dozens of parliamentarians from various parties and delivered to the government studies that contribute to support the decision-making of the Executive on energy security.

The increase in the use of biodiesel, even, goes beyond. It generates added value to soybean oil and also has repercussions on food chains by increasing the supply and cheapness of bran for animal feed, combining energy security with food. These and other socioeconomic and environmental benefits based on biodiesel allow estimating that each 1 additional percentage point of biodiesel to diesel promotes an increase of R$ 30 billion per year in terms of economic movement.

The mixing content of biodiesel to diesel is only 10% since November. There was an expectation that in March it would reach 14%. The limitation was an attempt to inhibit any pressure of the price of biodiesel on the final price of diesel. In April, the then Minister of Mines and Energy, Bento Albuquerque, said that the government's commitment is to resume the gradual growth of the mix and reach 15% in 2023, and may adopt the 14% later this year. The inaccuracy of dates is due to economic and global policy. Turning this speech into the action of the newly sworn-in Minister Adolfo Sachsida, with a set schedule, is FPBio's concentrated effort in weekly meetings with the executive branch summit.

At the same time, the federal government and the National Congress are trying to reduce costs in the fuel chain, such as recent changes in taxation. But the critical situation caused by the war forces us to reflect beyond the price issue, that is, on energy security, so that we can count on the abundance of bifuels for use in the country, an initiative consistent with the main global decarbonization agendas.

It is not simple to decide to adopt a large-scale biofuel. It is necessary to do so in stages; each being an evolution in relation to the previous one, until the appropriate conditions are created to stabilize prices and supply at levels appropriate to the national context. The country is moving in this direction, but the moment demands more boldness in favor of biodiesel and other biofuels for brazil's perennial energy security.

Source: Congresso em Foco