Ethanol is quite often mentioned on Brazilian news, and articles tend to focus on its oscillating price so to inform consumers which fuel is worth paying for on the pumps. The most common subjects on media reports concerning the biofuel are ethanol business and related policies, as well as research and price/production trends.
In regards to ethanol ecological footprint and social impacts, those topics are less recurrent and ethanol is presented as a clean, renewable source of energy used to mitigate climate change. In March 2012, for instance, one of Brazil’s main newspapers published an article reporting that, according to the government a 35% decrease in ethanol consumption jeopardizes the accomplishment of the goals assumed by the country to reduce GHG emissions.
Indirect emissions are rarely mentioned on Brazil mainstream media. When it does happen, itis usually presented as something new and controversial, with the report being more of an introduction to the theme, since it is not of widespread knowledge. NGOs and ethanol lobbying groups such as Unica publish more often articles on indirect emissions. NGOs also tend to present it as a controversy whereas lobbying groups manifest their belief in calculating models that point to lower emissions.