In
the case of sugarcane ethanol, a lot of energy inputs are required, especially for purifying the ethanol, but those inputs are being satisfied by burning the sugarcane ethanol residues to produce process heat.
Setting aside the fact that in many
cases clean energy competes on its own merits — for instance in the
case of well ‐ situated wind farms and Brazilian
sugarcane ethanol — this analysis shows that the global direct subsidy for fossil fuels is around ten times the subsidy for renewables.