Reassessing the environmental impacts of sugarcane ethanol production in Brazil to help meet sustainability goals

The potential for sugarcane ethanol from Brazil to mitigate GHG emissions is undeniable, but the way that ethanol is produced during the agricultural and industrial phases will ultimately determine its benefits to society. In this paper, we evaluate the environmental impacts of sugarcane agriculture and ethanol production in Brazil as management practices continue to change and production expands to new frontiers. We focused our evaluation on the impacts on water, atmosphere, and soils, including how the application of organic and inorganic fertilizers and the accumulation of crop residue in the field affect emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG). We also addressed the impacts of land use changes on threatened biomes and discussed some of the present obstacles regarding conservation and restoration efforts. We concluded that, since a similar assessment was put forth in 2008, our knowledge about the environmental impacts of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil has advanced with regard to soil degradation, nitrogen dynamics, and soil carbon stocks. However, more information is still needed about the impacts of the increasing use of pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers in sugarcane agriculture, especially on water resources. Furthermore, without a better understanding about how landscape fragmentation affects the biodiversity of terrestrial and aquatic tropical ecosystems and the services they provide, policies created to protect and restore them may be ineffective. On the other hand, the use of presently available scientific information to end unsustainable farming and the implementation of conservation strategies proposed by the Brazilian Forest Code could be a first step to guarantee that ethanol is produced more sustainably in Brazil.