Environmental sustainability of sugarcane ethanol in Brazil.

Brazil’s economy is performing well during the last few year reaching international investment grade levels, while at the same time providing quanti!able reductions of greenhouse gases, specially through its renewable energy matrix and the large scale use of ethanol in transportation. It is well-known that the quality of life in the world increases with economic growth, which increases demand for energy (Figure 1). If one considers the externalities created by burning fossil fuels, then economic growth becomes a major threat to the global well being; reinforcing the need to explore alternatives to improve the e"ciency of energy use and diversi!cation of energy sources, and especially from renewable ones.