Today is Friday, 12 July 2024.
Do you remember that last September 2023 a group of G20 countries gathered in India launched the so-called Global Biofuels Alliance?
Founding members were Argentina, Brazil, India, Italy, Mauritius, UAE and United States, with Bangladesh and Singapore attending as observers.
As reported by Government of India, meanwhile more countries have joined the initiative meaning that a significant portion of the global population is represented. As of July 2024, from the perspective of the 10 largest countries on Earth in terms of arable land, only Russia, China , Ukraine and Pakistan did not join yet.
In Brazil, ethanol and flex gasoline-ethanol engine cars and continental-size infrastructure are already a common - and affordable - reality since the oil crisis from the 70’s. Besides, 30% ethanol mixed with gasoline also leads to a cleaner air, specially in highly dense urban areas. More recently, the car industry started to investigate ethanol as a source of hydrogen for its vehicles.
United States (US), on its hand, took a recent and interesting step: last June 26 it launched a request for information (RFI) seeking public comments on the use of climate-smart agriculture in biofuel feedstock production. Input collected will be used to establish - and incentivize - voluntary standards for biofuel feedstocks grown with practices that mitigate GHG emissions and/or sequester soil carbon.
More specifically, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is seeking feedback on topics including:
Biofuel feedstock crops and practices for consideration in USDA’s analysis.
Scientific data, information, and analysis for consideration in quantifying the greenhouse gas emissions outcomes of climate-smart agricultural practices and conventional farming practices.
Records, documentation, and data necessary to provide sufficient evidence to verify practice adoption and maintenance.
Systems used to trace feedstocks throughout the biofuel supply chain.
Third-party verification of practice adoption and maintenance.
In other words, a very interesting and insightful RFI. Click at the image below to read more.
About climate-smart agriculture, recall our post “Carbon Farming Studies: How the Sector Could be Part of the Solutions to Climate Change.”
To learn more about ethanol, click here for our full list of related articles, including the hydrogen-related research cited above.
