World's Bow to Biofuel

It is just a matter of time before the world bows to biofuels, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Monday.

In his weekly radio program "Breakfast with the President," Lula hailed the International Conference on Biofuels in Sao Paulo last week as "an extraordinary success."

The high attendance at the meeting reflects the need for the world to adopt new energy sources, he said.

"We know that the world needs to produce more biofuels, that it is necessary to lower the emission of greenhouse gases, and that, in order to do so, we cannot use the same amount of oil we are using," he said.

In December, Brazil will celebrate its production of 7 million flexible-fuel cars, which can run on more than one fuel, usually ethanol and gasoline. Currently, 90 percent of cars produced in Brazil are flexible-fuel, according to Lula.

"Besides, we are already preparing the production of second-generation ethanol fuel, made from wood chips and sugarcane bagasse," he said.

Lula denied any relation between high food prices and biofuel production, saying people who wanted to criticize the corn-based biofuel production in the United States had made a generalization that caused great confusion.

"I think people are convinced that Brazil and the world have land, water and sun to produce both biofuel and food," he said.

Food prices increased "because there was a speculation in future markets, and we were paying the speculators' prices and not the real prices," he explained.