NP Ramos1, L Pereira1, R Rossetto2 and MI Folegatti1
1Embrapa Environment – Jaguariúna, São Paulo, CEP. 19.918-110, Brazil;nilza.ramos@embrapa.br
2IAC – Agronomic Institute of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
The state of São Paulo, the largest sugarcane producer in Brazil, implements a no-burn pre-harvest technique in 97% of its cultivated areas. However, climate change has intensified droughts, leading to an increase in accidental fires in both natural and agricultural areas, including sugarcane fields. The impact of pre-harvest burning episodes on the carbon footprint (CF) of sugarcane production in São Paulo, Brazil is estimated. We evaluated five potential burning rates (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and 0%) for a typical production profile using RenovaCalc, the carbon footprint calculator of RenovaBio (Brazil’s National Biofuels Policy). Emissions from land use change were also incorporated using the BRLUC v2.0 model. The CF values obtained were 53.3, 50.9, 48.4, 46.0, and 43.5 kg CO₂eq per tonne of sugarcane for burning rates of 100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, and 0%, respectively. These results demonstrate that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increase with higher burning rates, negatively impacting the environmental sustainability of biofuels and sugar derived from this biomass. The findings indicate that the CF of sugarcane produced using the pre-harvest burning technique is 22.5% higher than that of green-harvested sugarcane.