EU May Increase Imports of Brazilian Ethanol Through 2020, Adviser Says

Bloomberg
By Gelu Sulugiuc - Oct 13, 2010 10:18 AM CT

The European Union may increase imports of Brazilian ethanol from sugarcane to meet its 2020 environmental targets because supplies of biofuels from plant waste and municipal trash are insufficient, a consultant said.

The 27-nation bloc lacks a subsidy system to promote enough production of fuels from waste, said Maelle Soares Pinto, director of the Europe and Africa unit at Hart Energy Consulting, a fuels adviser that has counted BP Plc and U.S. government agencies among its clients. Supplies will lag demand by 2015, she said today at a conference in Copenhagen.

“The EU will have to import more Brazilian ethanol,” Pinto said at the International Conference on Lignocellulosic Ethanol. The EU’s Renewable Energy Directive “doesn’t provide subsidies or tell members how to promote these biofuels.”

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