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Last week, at the annual EU-Brazil Summit, the EU and Brazil have been discussing how to jointly tackle our global challenges – chief among them trade, climate change and economic growth. For the last four summits, leaders have pledged their unwavering commitment to work together. But were there actual results?

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) welcomes the opportunity to provide specific comments on the September 14 LCFS Land Use Change Workshop meeting’s documents, which the staff of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published on September 14, 2011.

The past few weeks have been busy for the international trade market – especially the ethanol sector. For starters, the United States solidified its new position as the world’s largest ethanol exporter.

This report was prepared by Centro de Tecnologia Canavieira - CTC, Piracicaba –Brazil, successor of Centro de Tecnologia Copersucar founded in 1969. The present CTC is a nationally and internationally well known private organization dedicated to research and technology transfer to the agro-industrial sector of sugarcane.

Since the introduction of flex-fuel vehicles by the Brazilian auto Industry in 2003, the sugar-energy industry has grown dramatically, in a manner previously seen only at the height of the “Proálcool” program during the 1980s.

The questions on the change in carbon storage caused by land use change led to the search for a methodology to estimate carbon storage in sugarcane fields, covering crop features of Brazilian farming system.

The Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association (UNICA) welcomes the opportunity to provide specific comments on the August meeting’s documents, which the staff of the California Air Resources Board (CARB) published on August 25, 2011.

O setor sucroenergético realiza um dos maiores programas do mundo em treinamento e qualificação de cortadores de cana-de-açúcar, seus familiares e membros das comunidades envolvidas, para capacitar mão-de-obra deslocada da queima manual no Estado de São Paulo.

This is the Brazilian Sugarcane Industry Association's (UNICA) second sustainability report, prepared in accordance with the G3 Guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). As such it constitutes a landmark in the development of the Brazilian sugar-energy sector.

Yesterday’s vote was a symbol of changing times. Politico announced “there are no longer any sacred cows when it come to energy,” while the Wall Street Journal called it “an ethanol miracle.”

In yet another sign of mounting support for ethanol reform, news broke last night of a fresh bipartisan effort to end the tariff on imported ethanol and the ethanol subsidy that costs taxpayers $6 billion per year. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) introduced an amendment to the small business bill that would sunset both policies less than two months from today.

Rising ethanol prices at the pump in Brazil have caused consumption of the renewable fuel to plunge in recent weeks, as drivers replace it with gasoline in their flex-fuel vehicles throughout the country. With simultaneously rising food prices come several accusations, some true, others false. The facts must be carefully analyzed.

The global financial crisis of 2008 barely grazed the Brazilian economy and may have been little more than a slight jolt for certain industries and areas of activity. But those that had been expanding with sizeable investments, like the sugarcane industry, were affected much more drastically by the dramatic loss of liquidity that year.

Yesterday marked one hundred days since the start of the 112th Congress and during that time, calls for ethanol policy reform gained considerable momentum. Deep bipartisan skepticism about continued subsidies and trade protection was on full display in the Senate on Wednesday, as Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack faced the Environment and Public Works Committee.

Recently Germany introduced E10 – a mixture of 10% ethanol and 90% gasoline - at fuel stations across the country. According to media sources the sale of the new fuel has created confusion amongst drivers, mainly due to concerns over the compatibility of their vehicles with the blend.

“The only long-term solution to the world’s dependence on fossil fuels is clean energy technology, and that is why the United States and Brazil are deepening our cooperation on biofuels, and why we’re launching a U.S.-Brazil Green Economy Partnership. Because we know that the development of clean energy is one of the best ways to create new jobs and industries in both our nations."

The recent spike in global food and commodity prices has caused fears in Brazil and countries around the world over the risk of inflationary pressures, the threat of shortages and the exacerbation of global hunger. Food prices continue to rise in the wake of consumer revolts and political riots, as seen recently in the Middle East - a region that has been a consistent net food importer.