Article28 December

Are flex fuel engines an obstacle to low carbon mobility in Brazil?

Sergio Abranches

Brazil has been championing biofuels and “flex fuel” engines for some time and for good reasons. Flex fuel engines run on any possible combination of ethanol and gasoline. Since all gasoline in Brazil has 25% of ethanol, flex fuel engines can run on any mix of  ethanol and gasoline, beginning at 25% to 75%, up to 100% ethanol. More »

Analysis15 December

Democracy sucks, long live democracy

Sergio Abranches

Today I saw a Retweet that reminded me of something I thought, and afterwards wrote about, many years ago. The RT by @paulegina (a.k.a Paule Wendelberger), a US citizen born in Haiti, living and working for more than 20 years in Germany (www.wendelberger.com), quoted a Tweet by @wsteffie (a.k.a Stefanie W) conveniently located in “Cyberspace”. Her bio is both a demand and a statement of belief: “human rights for all, and social democracy can work if we all act responsibly.” Her Tweet reads: “@TIME is just teaching us about American Democracy: Ask the people to vote & then screw them!” More »

COP1613 December

The Cancun Agreements

Sergio Abranches

The Cancun Agreements were a continuation of the Copenhagen Accord, and an additional important step forward. COP16 meant more progress in the right direction. But we are still far from a new binding agreement on climate change. More »

COP1610 December

BASIC countries positively impressed by the document put together by the Secretariat of COP16

Sergio Abranches

The BASIC countries (Brazil, South Africa, India and China) have just met to evaluate the draft document that will serve as a basis for the Cancun resolution, and were pleased with what they’ve read. More »

COP1609 December

Almost stalled in the right direction

Sergio Abranches

Climate talks in Cancun were almost stopping, although in the right direction until Thursday evening. In the corridors, negotiators walking hastily from one room to another were saying they were close to remove some of the major stumbling blocks keeping the talks from advancing faster. More »

COP1608 December

World climate deal pending on unsaid words

Sergio Abranches

Every delegate is saying the same words here in Cancun. All press briefings and all plenary statements include the same set of keywords to login into the general conversation: balanced package, compromise, transparency. But the deal is depending on the words that have not been said. Unsaid words have become the core password to an agreement. More »