September 12, 2023 [Businessline]- New Delhi has emphasised the need to have a global platform which can address the underlying challenges and enable wider international cooperation to realise the untapped potential of sustainable biofuels.
Aiming to accelerate adoption of biofuels, create global standards and enhance industry participation, India is expected to launch the much-awaited Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA) at the G20 Leadership Summit in New Delhi on Saturday.
Sources said that 12 international organisations and 15 countries are willing to be initiating members, while four nations have expressed interest to be observer countries. However, countries such as China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have decided against joining the alliance.
Third global institution
“The Prime Minister is expected to launch the GBA tomorrow at the leadership summit. This will be the third global institution whose formation was spearheaded by India for global development after the International Solar Alliance (ISA) and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI),” said one of the sources.
A senior government official said the formalities related to the announcement are expected to be firmed up at the bilateral meeting between India and the US, which among other issues includes clean energy. The US President Joe Biden is expected to strongly endorse the GBA.
India, at several forums, has emphasised that there is an urgent need to have a global platform that can address the underlying challenges and enable wider international cooperation to realise the huge untapped potential of sustainable biofuels to cater to common global goods of climate change mitigation through reduced carbon emissions and achieving sustainable development goals.
Promoting GBA
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) has been instrumental in aggressively promoting the cause of biofuels and the creation of a global consortium of countries to develop an international market for biofuels and to promote more efforts in research and development for second and third generation biofuels.
The MoPNG conducted a special ministerial session, GBA: Consultations and Recommendations, which was headed by Oil Minister H S Puri on July 22, 2023, in Goa, in conjunction with the G20 Energy Ministerial Meeting.
Countries such as Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, Italy, Kenya, Mauritius, Paraguay, Seychelles, the UAE, Uganda and the US participated in the session.
The consultative process resulted in the Energy Ministers recommending the establishment of the multi-stakeholder global alliance on Biofuels to the G20 leaders.
Membership
GBA will be a competent organisation that will set technical standards for Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) business in collaboration with relevant industry bodies, he added.
The alliance will have a three-category membership structure bringing together member countries, partner organisations and industries.
GBA will work towards enhancing global collaboration and cooperation for accelerated adoption of biofuels by identifying global best practices for the development and deployment of sustainable biofuels and bio-products.
Biofuels
International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that global sustainable biofuels production would need to triple by 2030 to put the world’s energy system on track towards net zero emissions by 2050.
Liquid biofuels in 2022 avoided near 2 million barrels of oil per day in the transport sector, which accounts for more than 4 per cent of global transport demand, However, their deployment is not accelerating fast enough. Moreover, more than 80 per cent of global production is concentrated in just four markets: the US, Brazil, Europe and Indonesia.
Biofuels provided 22 per cent of Brazil’s and 7 per cent of the US transport energy in 2022. In India, ethanol’s share of energy use in gasoline vehicles reached 6 per cent in 2022, double of 2019 levels.
Deployment is constrained by challenges such as the availability of the feedstock used to make biofuels, the lack of consensus on sustainability criteria, and the pace at which related technology has been commercialised.
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