pdf
25 KByte
German
 

Gabriel welcomes energy agreement with Brazil

Germany and Brazil have agreed on a comprehensive cooperation in the field of renewable energies and energy efficiency. During the German Chancellor's visit to Brazil, the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, Dagmar Wöhrl, signed a corresponding agreement. Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel welcomed the adoption of this agreement. "This agreement finally extends energy-related cooperation with Brazil to a sector that is far more important for the country's energy supply than nuclear power." Minister Gabriel also responded to environmental initiatives which had criticised the agreement.

The purpose of the new agreement is to develop and improve a sustainable energy infrastructure. To achieve this, the parties to the agreement want to promote political dialogue, scientific and technological exchange and participation of the private sector through jointly developed initiatives.

"This agreement is neither a supply contract to export biofuel to Germany nor does it advance the destruction of rain forest, as some would have us believe", said Minister Gabriel. "On the contrary: the cooperation explicitly refers to the sustainable production and use of renewable energies."

For all areas of cooperation special working groups will be set up, the first of which is singled out in a separate article: it is concerned with the topic of biofuels and deals with "Trade issues, standards, social and ecological certification and the production and use of biofuels based on the three pillars of sustainable development: environmental, economic and social aspects."

Gabriel: "I am convinced that we have chosen the right path by applying sustainability standards and certification for the biomass used for our bioenergy production. Thus we can ensure that this biomass was produced in a sustainable way without overexploiting the forests. Bioenergy production per se is not good or bad. We have to take a very close look: What are the sustainability criteria we want to set and how do we control that they are adhered to? However, we must also consider how we can ensure producers that their products can be sold on the German and European markets. If we do not do this and instead stop importing biofuels from Southern countries we are signalling them that we want to keep them poor."

In addition to renewable energies and energy efficiency, the areas of cooperation under the new energy agreement include innovative drive and production technologies, and the development and support of technology transfer under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol. Brazil is one of the most important host countries for CDM projects and has a very well developed infrastructure for approving and implementing these projects. The agreement also mentions the "best available technologies for sustainable research, exploitation and use of oil, coal and gas" as suitable areas for cooperation.

In addition to the new agreement, the agreement on cooperation on the peaceful uses of nuclear energy adopted by Germany and Brazil in 1975 and subsequent supplementary provisions remain in force. However, their importance decreases. This becomes obvious when considering that nuclear power only covers 2 percent of Brazil's primary energy consumption while renewable energies such as hydropower and biomass make up 40 percent of the primary energy mix in Brazil. This opens up a wide range of opportunities for the export of German technologies and installations.