Bush on Biofuel in Brazil

U.S. President George W. Bush traveled to Brazil and met today with Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, where the two agreed to share alternative fuel technology.

Brazil has been producing ethanol from sugarcane for about 30 years. The crop now replaces 40 percent of gasoline consumption. More than 70 percent of the automobiles are "flex-fuel" vehicles, capable of running on gasoline or ethanol. It's the biggest Latin American economy, and the world's only major exporter of ethanol.

The two leaders made speeches today at the Petrobras facility in Sao Paulo. We're the last ones to be government mouthpieces, but we thought those whose business is biofuels might be particularly interested in the full text of what they said.

PRESIDENT LULA: (As translated.) Mr. President George Bush, President of the United States of America; ladies and gentlemen, part of the Brazilian- American committees; ladies and gentlemen, part of the press; my friends, all present: It's a pleasure to receive President George Bush in Sao Paulo, our largest city in Brazil, a city which symbolizes the richness of our economy and entrepreneurship of our people.

We've come to Transpetro Terminal here in Guaruhos, to celebrate an important partnership which is really important between the United States and Brazil. The memorandum of understanding about cooperation in the biofuel area that was signed today is an answer to the great, energetic challenges of the 21st century.

The world is concerned with today's event and observing it carefully. We're launching a partnership to the future, a great plan which will renovate and transcend the bilateral plan and create opportunities on a world's scale. The partnership we will now launch is ambitious and aimed at all aspects related to the final incorporation of the energy plan of our two countries. I was very pleased to know about President Bush's decision to give greater value to biofuel within the energy plan of the United States.

This agreement brings into reality an idea which was born on the occasion of our meeting in Brasilia in 2005, when President Bush first became aware of Brazil's success story with biofuel. It's important to remember that when President Bush went to Brasilia I was truly obsesses with biofuel, and he almost couldn't have lunch because I wouldn't stop talking about biofuel. But I think that was important, because the world is not always ready and prepared for major changes unless we have untiring debates and people are convinced that Planet Earth needs to be de-polluted. And it's in our hands, we who have polluted it, to de-pollute it.

In the field of ethanol we have an extremely successful program that's come out of over 30 years of very much work and technological innovation. We are doing the same thing in our betting on biodiesel. By 2010, Brazilian diesel, 5 percent of it will come from native abundant plants in our country, such as African palm, cottonseed, sunflower, castor beans, and many other seeds.

Also, our biodiesel program has a major social impact. It is aimed at small farmers to family farmers. It will help create jobs and income in the poorest regions of our country, especially in the northeastern semi-arid region, where many of these crops are actually native.

Today the entire society is reaping the fruit of these efforts, and other countries want to share Brazil's experience. The memorandum is an important step in that direction. But it's not just an economic partnership between Brazil and the U.S. A close relationship and cooperation between the two leaders in ethanol production will make it possible to democratize access to energy. The growing use of biofuel will be an inestimable contribution to the generation of income, social inclusion and reduction of poverty in many poor countries of the world.

We want to see biomass generating sustainable development, above all in South America, Central America, in the Caribbean and in Africa. Brazil and the United States should create alliances with other countries to achieve global diversification of the production of biofuels. To that end, we must lay the basis for a global market of biofuels.

We share a responsibility and special challenges. But our strategic partnership is also strengthened with the creation of the International Biofuel Forum with the participation of India, China, South Africa and the European Union, in addition to Brazil and the U.S. This is how we will achieve the scale of production we need to potentialize the benefits of ethanol and biodiesel.

Brazil has been a tireless defender of renewable energy resources and renewable fuels. Therefore, we are very pleased with the growing awareness of the international community that we need to overcome dependency on fossil fuels at a time when we are called upon to act urgently to confront global warming. Anything we can do to reduce emissions of polluting gases will be a gain.

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