8.3 Agency Patterns: State Reemergence Amid Transnational Actors
193
Given biofuel agendas’ reliance on public policy, it should come as no surprise that
governments and private companies have framed them primarily in terms of energy
security and other national or public interests. This rhetoric has a key importance in
democratic societies. Changes in public opinion and shocks external to the policy field
(such as electoral losses) are the most common causes of major policy changes—as
Brazil’s case now vividly demonstrates (see Weible et al. 2011). The policy sciences
literature considers two other possible causes: policy-oriented learning (though this
usually affects only secondary beliefs) and negotiated agreements. However, actors
who benefit from the status quo generally have no incentive to negotiate unless
specific conditions such as a hurting stalemate are in place (Sabatier and Weible 2007,
p. 206). In the current configuration of emerging economies, weaker actors such as
the rural poor and indigenous peoples tend to be the only ones being “hurt”—often
literally. This imbalance explains why biofuel agendas have managed to continue
relatively unabated despite mounting criticism.
8.4 The Bioeconomy: Addressing or Aggravating
North-South Inequalities?
The development strategies of emerging economies may help them catch up with
highly industrialized countries—what has been termed equalizing development (see
Chap. 2)—or hold them back, possibly even pulling them down to a weaker position.
Drawing from an eclectic selection of authors that have over time discussed the
structural socio-economic or political features that distinguish developed and developing countries, a global North from a global South (e.g., Dirlik 2007; Hurrell and
Sengupta 2012; Wallerstein 2011; Horner and Nadvi 2018), this analysis uses five
criteria to assess equalizing development: (i) domestic value-added in the production
chain; (ii) endogenous innovation with ownership and control over technology; (iii)
economic gains in absolute terms; and (iv) relative economic gains, i.e., compared
to developed countries in the same bioeconomy value chain; and, a fifth, political
factor that the biofuels sector particularly reveals to be relevant: (v) vulnerability
to international determinants. Countries have promoted biofuels partly to reduce oil
import dependency—and, thereby, exposure to price fluctuations or political decisions and instability in oil-exporting countries. However, biofuels production has
exposed some of them to unilateral foreign rule-making attempts on their national
development.
From the perspective of equalizing development, Brazil’s biofuel development
has been mostly positive. First, endogenous innovation on agricultural technology—
in this case, particularly on sugarcane but also on soy—has allowed for a top biofuel
sector in terms of productivity and market absorption. It has spilled over to promote
Brazilian flex-fuel car technologies and other uses from sugarcane, such as electricity co-generation or up and coming bio-products such as cane-based plastics (see
193
Given biofuel agendas’ reliance on public policy, it should come as no surprise that
governments and private companies have framed them primarily in terms of energy
security and other national or public interests. This rhetoric has a key importance in
democratic societies. Changes in public opinion and shocks external to the policy field
(such as electoral losses) are the most common causes of major policy changes—as
Brazil’s case now vividly demonstrates (see Weible et al. 2011). The policy sciences
literature considers two other possible causes: policy-oriented learning (though this
usually affects only secondary beliefs) and negotiated agreements. However, actors
who benefit from the status quo generally have no incentive to negotiate unless
specific conditions such as a hurting stalemate are in place (Sabatier and Weible 2007,
p. 206). In the current configuration of emerging economies, weaker actors such as
the rural poor and indigenous peoples tend to be the only ones being “hurt”—often
literally. This imbalance explains why biofuel agendas have managed to continue
relatively unabated despite mounting criticism.
8.4 The Bioeconomy: Addressing or Aggravating
North-South Inequalities?
The development strategies of emerging economies may help them catch up with
highly industrialized countries—what has been termed equalizing development (see
Chap. 2)—or hold them back, possibly even pulling them down to a weaker position.
Drawing from an eclectic selection of authors that have over time discussed the
structural socio-economic or political features that distinguish developed and developing countries, a global North from a global South (e.g., Dirlik 2007; Hurrell and
Sengupta 2012; Wallerstein 2011; Horner and Nadvi 2018), this analysis uses five
criteria to assess equalizing development: (i) domestic value-added in the production
chain; (ii) endogenous innovation with ownership and control over technology; (iii)
economic gains in absolute terms; and (iv) relative economic gains, i.e., compared
to developed countries in the same bioeconomy value chain; and, a fifth, political
factor that the biofuels sector particularly reveals to be relevant: (v) vulnerability
to international determinants. Countries have promoted biofuels partly to reduce oil
import dependency—and, thereby, exposure to price fluctuations or political decisions and instability in oil-exporting countries. However, biofuels production has
exposed some of them to unilateral foreign rule-making attempts on their national
development.
From the perspective of equalizing development, Brazil’s biofuel development
has been mostly positive. First, endogenous innovation on agricultural technology—
in this case, particularly on sugarcane but also on soy—has allowed for a top biofuel
sector in terms of productivity and market absorption. It has spilled over to promote
Brazilian flex-fuel car technologies and other uses from sugarcane, such as electricity co-generation or up and coming bio-products such as cane-based plastics (see