As India debates the ethanol-blending mandate, Brazil's Proalcool programme is being invoked as the holy grail of alternative energy. The narrative is seamless: a developing nation frees itself from the tyranny of global oil shocks by turning its vast sugarcane fields into a domestic fuel pipeline.
But this version of history is incomplete. Environmental historian Jennifer Eaglin's Sweet Fuel: A Political and Environmental History of Brazilian Ethanol provides clues as to why. Eaglin pulls back the curtain on the Brazilian model. In our rush to copy Brazil's homework, let's not read only the first chapter of the Proalcool textbook. It's imperative to also examine the second half: the late-1980s crisis, when Brazil's ethanol-only transport model unravelled under the pressures of falling oil prices, rising sugar prices and supply shortages.
