This work brings a refined estimation of the land use change and derived CO₂ emissions associated with sugarcane cultivation, including changes in management practices and refined land-use carbon stocks, over the last two decades for Brazil’s center–south and north regions. The analysis was carried out at the rural property level, considering spatially explicit land conversion data. With the refinements, we found a net carbon removal of 9.8 TgCO₂∙yr⁻¹ in sugarcane cultivation areas in the 2000–2020 period, which was due to the expansion of sugarcane over poor quality pastures (55% of the gross removals), croplands (15%) and mosaic (14%) areas, and the transition from the conventional burned harvesting to unburned (16%). Moreover, 98.4% of expansion was over existent agricultural areas. Considering all the land use changes within sugarcane-producing rural properties, the net removal is even larger, of 17 TgCO₂∙yr⁻¹, which is due to vegetation recovery. This suggests that public policies and private control mechanisms might have been effective not only to control deforestation but also to induce carbon removals associated with sugarcane cultivation. These results indicate sugarcane production system and derived products as contributors to net carbon removals in the land sector in Brazil and should be considered for both bioenergy and agricultural sustainability evaluation.

In 2017, Brazil launched its National Biofuel Policy (RenovaBio) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation matrix, aligned with the National Determined Contribution commitments under the Paris Agreement. The authors of this Technical Note formed a working group that structured the methodological framework for RenovaCalc, the computational tool used by producers to quantify the carbon intensity of biofuels certified under RenovaBio. The framework is based on the Life Cycle Assessment approach, in accordance with internationally recognized standards and bioenergy policy guidelines. For the 2025 cycle, 331 production units (75% of Brazil’s total) had their biofuels under certification obtained using RenovaCalc, which is currently available for biodiesel, ethanol, biomethane, and sustainable aviation fuel produced from numerous feedstocks. The calculator is widely adopted and possibly the most important life cycle tool in Brazil.

Brazil is a leading producer of multi-purpose crops—such as corn, soybean, and sugarcane—used for human consumption, animal feed, and biofuel production. This study generated agricultural inventories for these three crops based on state-level information. For sugarcane, we used primary data submitted by ethanol producers to RenovaBio. For soybean and corn, we retrieved and updated data from a previous study, which gathered information through panel consultations with farmers and sector experts. We also calculated the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the crops using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method. Our analysis revealed significant variability in emissions across states, especially for corn and sugarcane. Without considering direct land use change (dLUC), the states with the highest and lowest emissions for each crop were as follows: (i) sugarcane: Paraíba at 54 and Goiás at 37, with a national average of 42 kg CO₂e/t cane; (ii) soybean: Maranhão at 344 and Minas Gerais at 300, average of 323 kg CO₂e/t soy; (iii) first-crop corn: Maranhão at 416 and Mato Grosso at 264, average of 300 kg CO₂e/t corn; (iv) second-crop corn: Paraná at 306 and Minas Gerais at 153, average of 255 kg CO₂e/t corn. Emissions were inversely related to crop yields, with the exception of second-crop corn. In general, lower yields were observed in states of the Northeast region (e.g., Maranhão and Paraíba), which face challenges due to irregular climate patterns and water deficits. For sugarcane cultivated in the same region, emissions from straw burning had a significant impact, with the practice being applied to more than 60% of the crop area. If dLUC emissions were included, variability would increase dramatically—particularly for corn and soybean in some states—due to patterns of cropland expansion into native vegetation areas over the 2000–2019 period. In particular, total soybean emissions would range from 471 in Paraná to 2173 in Maranhão, with a national average of 1022 kg CO₂e/t soy. These findings can be valuable as references for life cycle databases, for the development of state-specific emission factors for biofuels produced from the investigated crops, and as supporting information for decarbonization programs.