Around 15 countries and 12 international organisations have evinced interest in becoming members of The Global Biofuel Alliance (GBA), which is backed by the US, Brazil and India, Parliament was informed on Monday.
“India spearheaded consultations for a multi stakeholder GBA as Chair’s Initiative during India’s G20 Presidency. Currently, 15 countries and 12 International Organisations are willing to be the initiating members, and four additional countries have expressed interest to be the observer countries,” Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Rameswar Teli said in a written response in Rajya Sabha.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG) conducted a special Ministerial session, GBA: Consultations and Recommendations, headed by Oil Minister HS Puri on July 22, 2023, in Goa, in conjunction with the G20 Energy Ministerial Meeting, he added.
The consultative process resulted in the Energy Ministers recommending the establishment of the multi-stakeholder Global alliance on Biofuels to the G20 leaders, the Minister said.
India, the US and Brazil account for a total of 85 per cent of the global ethanol production with the US holding 55 per cent share followed by Brazil (27 per cent) and India (3 per cent).
GBA membership
GBA will be a competent organisation which 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.
The alliance 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.
Last month, Puri had emphasised that there is an urgent need to have a global platform which 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.