PM Modi Launches Global Biofuels Alliance: Why is the Cleaner Fuel Initiative Significant for India | Explained

India has launched the Global Biofuels Alliance at the G20 summit in New Delhi to boost the use of cleaner fuels. Prime Minister Narendra Modi while launching the alliance urged G20 nations to join the initiative with a plea to take ethanol blending with petrol globally to 20 per cent.

The alliance was launched with a host of global leaders including US President Joe Biden, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of the G20 Summit.

Besides India, the initiating members include Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, the UAE and the US, while Canada and Singapore are observer countries.

The Global Biofuel Alliance was one of the priorities under India’s G20 Presidency as New Delhi has been pushing for initiatives to reduce its dependency on oil imports and move towards net-zero carbon emissions.

What is Global Biofuels Alliance

The Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) would help accelerate global efforts to meet net-zero emissions targets by facilitating trade in biofuels derived from sources including plant and animal waste.

The alliance is aimed at facilitating cooperation and intensifying the use of sustainable biofuels across sectors, including transportation. Its focus is primarily on strengthening markets, encouraging trade, facilitating global biofuel trade, developing concrete policy lesson-sharing and providing technical support for national biofuel programmes worldwide.

It will work in collaboration with and complement the relevant existing regional and international agencies as well as initiatives in the bioenergy, bioeconomy, and energy transition fields more broadly, including the Clean Energy Ministerial Biofuture Platform, the Mission Innovation Bioenergy initiatives, and the Global Bioenergy Partnership, a government statement said.

The GBA would be similar to the International Solar Alliance piloted by New Delhi and Paris in 2015 to bring clean and affordable solar energy within the reach of all.

Such an initiative is also aimed at helping India’s transition to alternative fuels and cutting its import bill, as the country seeks to achieve its net-zero carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Modi had earlier said that India’s proposal for a global alliance on biofuels among members of the Group of 20 major economies would help accelerate sustainable biofuels deployment in support of the global energy transition.

What is Biofuel and Why it is Important

Biofuel is a renewable source of energy which is derived from biomass. It can be solid, liquid and gaseous and produced from organic matter in a short period of time.

India, which imports over 85 percent of its crude oil needs, is gradually building capacity to produce fuel from such items as crop stubble, plant waste, and municipal solid waste.

Compared to other alternative fuel options, biofuels are easily available and have fewer limitations of geography. Biofuel can be stored, burned and pumped the same way as petroleum diesel fuel. They can be used in pure forms or blended easily.

The cost involved in biofuels is lesser when compared to other sources like petrol and diesel. India plans to build 12 bio-refineries to produce fuel from items including crop stubble, plant waste and municipal solid waste.

While India is on schedule to double the mixing of ethanol extracted from sugarcane and agriculture waste to 20 percent with petrol by 2025, it is also setting up dozens of compressed biogas (CBG) plants.

India is targeting to become carbon neutral by 2070 and is expanding use of biofuel in its transport sector.

(With inputs from agencies)