GLOBAL BIOFUEL ALLIANCE - INTERNATIONAL

News: What is driving the Global Biofuels Alliance? | Explained

 

What's in the news?

       On September 10, on the sidelines of the annual G-20 summit in New Delhi, an India-led grouping came together to give impetus to the production and use of biofuels, an alternative to fossil fuels like petroleum and diesel.

 

Key takeaways:

       The grouping, called the Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) would attempt to bring countries together to co-develop, accelerate technological advances in production processes, and advocate for the use of biofuels particularly in the transport sector.

       The three founding members, India, the U.S. and Brazil, were joined by Argentina, Canada, Italy and South Africa, who are also G-20 member countries.

 

Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA):

1. GBA is an India-led initiative to develop an alliance of governments, international organizations and industry to facilitate adoption of biofuels.

2. Bringing together the biggest consumers and producers of biofuels to drive biofuels development and deployment, the initiative aims to position biofuels as a key to energy transition and contribute to jobs and economic growth.

3. The initiating members of the Alliance are India, Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, the UAE and the US. Canada and Singapore are observer countries.

4. The Global Biofuels Alliance is aimed at facilitating cooperation and intensifying the use of sustainable biofuels across sectors, including transportation.

5. Its focus is primarily on strengthening markets, facilitating global biofuel trade, developing concrete policy lesson-sharing and providing technical support for national biofuel programmes worldwide.

6. GBA will support worldwide development and deployment of sustainable biofuels by offering capacity-building exercises across the value chain, technical support for national programmes and promoting policy lessons-sharing.

7. It will facilitate mobilizing a virtual marketplace to assist industries, countries, ecosystem players and key stakeholders in mapping demand and supply, as well as connecting technology providers to end users. It will also facilitate development, adoption and implementation of internationally recognised standards, codes, sustainability principles and regulations to incentivise

biofuels adoption and trade.

8. GBA as a tangible outcome of the G20 presidency, will help strengthen India’s position globally.

9. Moreover, the alliance will focus on collaboration and will provide additional opportunities to Indian industries in the form of exporting technology and exporting equipment.

10. It will help accelerate India’s existing biofuels programmes.

11. The global ethanol market was valued at $99.06 billion in 2022 and is predicted to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 5.1 per cent by 2032 and surpass $162.12 billion by 2032.

 

National level initiatives for Biofuel promotion:

  1. Pradhan Mantri JI-VAN Yojana, 2019: The objective of the scheme is to create an ecosystem for setting up commercial projects and to boost Research and Development in 2G Ethanol sector.
  2. Ethanol blending programme: ethanol blending target of 20% of petrol containing ethanol by 2025-26.

·         It will promote the production of biofuels in the country, under the Make in India program, by units located in Special Economic Zones (SEZ)/ Export Oriented Units (EoUs).

  1. GOBAR (Galvanizing Organic Bio-Agro Resources) DHAN scheme, 2018: It focuses on managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste in farms to useful compost, biogas and bio-CNG, thus keeping villages clean and increasing the income of rural households. It was launched under Swachh Bharat Mission (Gramin).
  2. Repurpose Used Cooking Oil (RUCO): It was launched by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) and aims for an ecosystem that will enable the collection and conversion of used cooking oil to biodiesel.
  3. National Policy on Biofuels, 2018:

 The GBA is poised to revolutionize the global biofuel industry. India’s leadership in the G20 Presidency highlights the importance of biofuels in achieving energy independence, reducing carbon emissions, and fostering a clean energy transition. The GBA’s detailed roadmap, ambitious targets and initiatives will pave the way for a greener and more sustainable future.