The Brazilian biofuel policy (RenovaBio) and its uncertainties: An assessment of technical, socioeconomic and institutional aspects

The National Biofuels Policy (RenovaBio) was launched in December 2017 with the aim of supporting the Brazilian Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC)'s commitments under the Paris Agreement. This policy includes mechanisms for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), commercialization and predictability of the fuel market, supporting national energy security and reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. It focuses on increasing the biofuel consumption and its expansion in the Brazilian energy matrix, giving incentives to producers, and creating an open market of carbon-reduction credits called CBIO. In this context, this paper aims to assess the RenovaBio program and its main challenges from a technical, economic and institutional perspective, besides assessing the lessons learned from the prior national biofuel policies. We analysed the scientific literature from Scopus and ScienceDirect databases by using the T-Lab's topic model tool, which combines the Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) algorithm and Gibbs sampling, so as to provide a way of identifying, examining, and modelling topics from the texts. Our conclusions put light on the need to establish RenovaBio's legal and regulatory framework, in addition to reassessing the LCA methodology and eligibility details, as concerns arose over land use displacement for sugarcane and traceability of agricultural feedstock. Furthermore, the Program fostered discussions on new technologies and the regulated carbon market in the fuel sector in Brazil, in addition to the social aspect, especially considering the pandemic period of the program implementation and its impacts on the fluctuation of agribusiness commodities prices and fuel sales.

Automated summary

The RenovaBio policy aims to support Brazil's commitments under the Paris Agreement by increasing biofuel consumption, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and creating commercial opportunities in the fuel market. The policy also focuses on supporting national energy security, incentivizing producers, and establishing a carbon credit market called CBIO.