Global Biofuel Alliance may not see further expansion soon, says NITI Aayog chief
India is not expecting any other country to join the Global Biofuel Alliance immediately, the country’s G20 Sherpa and former NITI Aayog chief executive Amitabh Kant told FE. However, participation from other countries is expected once the relevant recommendations are implemented, he added.
“Work is being done in several areas. We are taking forward the implementation of all the recommendations under G20 including green development, circular economy, and tripling renewable energy,” Kant said. Further, the framework of the alliance is likely to focus on increased private investments in the clean energy segment to be able to achieve the target of net zero emissions.
“India’s push for G20 has advised multilateral development banks to shift their approach by focusing on three key aspects – making private capital mobilization as the central element of the sustainable development strategy, supporting governments in reducing policy and regulatory risks to private investment and aligning their financial product offering to private capital market gaps,” Kant said while addressing the gathering at the “Climate Financing” conference organized by Ease of Doing Business.
The Global Biofuel Alliance, launched during the G20 summit in September 2023 under India’s presidency, presently has 21 member countries with 12 international organizations and aims at worldwide development and deployment of biofuels by offering capacity-building exercises across the value chain, technical support for national programs, and promoting policy lessons-sharing.
The alliance which includes the US and Brazil, the top consumers and producers of biofuels, can help India reduce its dependency on crude oil imports by way of technology transfer for enhanced production of biofuel domestically. However, the major producers of crude oil – Russia and Saudi Arabia have so far stayed out from joining the alliance and so has China.
The government has been working towards the promotion of compressed biogas as an alternative source of energy to reduce its dependence on fossil fuels for quite some time now. In addition to catalyzing the formation of the Global Biofuel Alliance, the government has now mandated 5% blending of CBG with compressed natural gas and piped natural gas by FY29.
Union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri had earlier said that the global biofuels market is set to jump from its current value of $92 billion to $200 billion post the launch of the alliance.
Indian Biogas Association’s Chairman Gaurav Kedia had told FE that the alliance may come out with the entire framework for the Global Biofuel Alliance this year and are already consulting different organizations for the same. “There might be a little more emphasis on the liquid side (ethanol) to start with,” he had said.
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