16/12/07

South American countries join forces to boost biofuels

La caña de azúcar se usa en Sudamérica como fuente de bioetanol Copyright: morgueFile

By: Paula Leighton

We encourage you to republish this article online and in print, it’s free under our creative commons attribution license, but please follow some simple guidelines:

You have to credit our authors.
You have to credit SciDev.Net — where possible include our logo with a link back to the original article.
You can simply run the first few lines of the article and then add: “Read the full article on SciDev.Net” containing a link back to the original article.
If you want to also take images published in this story you will need to confirm with the original source if you're licensed to use them.
The easiest way to get the article on your site is to embed the code below.

For more information view our media page and republishing guidelines.

The full article is available here as HTML.

Press Ctrl-C to copy

<div class="article-wrap">
<div id="article-introduction">
<h1>South American countries join forces to boost biofuels</h1>
<h4>By: Paula Leighton</h4>
</div>
<br />
<br />

<div id="article-body">
<p>Members of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) have agreed to carry out research and develop policies to increase biofuel production in the region.</p>
<p>The decision was made last week (4 December) during the 13th CAS Regular Meeting, in Asunción, Paraguay.</p>
<p>CAS is a forum for the ministers of agriculture and livestock of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.</p>
<p>"The member countries have agreed to foster strategic alliances to allow technological development and research in this area," Álvaro Rojas, CAS president and the Chilean minister of agriculture, told SciDev.Net.</p>
<p>CAS member countries have agreed "to develop a fluent dialogue in issues such as scientific exchange, comparative review of legislation and environmental impact studies of green fuels", says Rojas.      </p>
<p>He adds that, to avoid increases in food prices and threats to food security, it is necessary to adopt agriculture policies, analyse market trends, and "carry out regional studies on issues such as product supply and demand, and the challenges of this new industry".  </p>
<p>All of the countries involved — except Chile — already have national legislation on biofuels. Every country will consider their national strategies, to set their own goals and deadlines to move agro-energy development forward.</p>
<p>For example, Chile intends to consolidate its use and production of biofuel —mainly bioethanol — by 2012. In Argentina the Biofuels Promotion Law, passed last year, says that from 2010 fuels such as gasoil and diesel will have to be blended with five per cent biofuel.</p>
<p>Last week (4 December) sugar cane-derived ethanol was included in a list of biofuels that can be added to conventional fuel in Argentina.</p>

</div>
<div class="quick-links-wrapper">
<h3>You might also like</h3>
[related-articles]
</div>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="https://www.scidev.net" target="_blank">SciDev.Net</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.scidev.net/global/news/south-american-countries-join-forces-to-boost-biof/" target="_blank">original article</a>.</p>
<script type="text/javascript">
(function(e,t,n,r,i,s,o){e["GoogleAnalyticsObject"]=i;e[i]=e[i]||function(){(e[i].q=e[i].q||[]).push(arguments)},e[i].l=1*new Date;s=t.createElement(n),o=t.getElementsByTagName(n)[0];s.async=1;s.src=r;o.parentNode.insertBefore(s,o)})(window,document,"script","//www.google-analytics.com/ga.js","ga");var _gaq=_gaq||[];var _gaq=_gaq||[];_gaq.push(["_setAccount","UA-3223906-8"],["_trackEvent","article interaction","republished","https://www.scidev.net/global/news/south-american-countries-join-forces-to-boost-biof/",null,true])
</script>
</div>

Members of the Southern Agricultural Council (CAS) have agreed to carry out research and develop policies to increase biofuel production in the region.

The decision was made last week (4 December) during the 13th CAS Regular Meeting, in Asunción, Paraguay.

CAS is a forum for the ministers of agriculture and livestock of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay.

"The member countries have agreed to foster strategic alliances to allow technological development and research in this area," Álvaro Rojas, CAS president and the Chilean minister of agriculture, told SciDev.Net.

CAS member countries have agreed "to develop a fluent dialogue in issues such as scientific exchange, comparative review of legislation and environmental impact studies of green fuels", says Rojas.

He adds that, to avoid increases in food prices and threats to food security, it is necessary to adopt agriculture policies, analyse market trends, and "carry out regional studies on issues such as product supply and demand, and the challenges of this new industry".

All of the countries involved — except Chile — already have national legislation on biofuels. Every country will consider their national strategies, to set their own goals and deadlines to move agro-energy development forward.

For example, Chile intends to consolidate its use and production of biofuel —mainly bioethanol — by 2012. In Argentina the Biofuels Promotion Law, passed last year, says that from 2010 fuels such as gasoil and diesel will have to be blended with five per cent biofuel.

Last week (4 December) sugar cane-derived ethanol was included in a list of biofuels that can be added to conventional fuel in Argentina.