Global Biofuels Alliance to prepare charter for switch
The objective of the alliance is to promote biofuels and lower the dependence on fossil fuels
India- and US-backed Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) is set to draw up a charter to achieve its objective of promoting biofuels and lowering the dependence on fossil fuels, two people aware of the developments said. Talks are also underway on its governance structure including the creation of a governing body and a secretariat.
“We will now look at preparing the charter, which will help in finalizing the governance structure—executive body, secretariat and general secretary of the alliance. Talks for the governance structure have been ongoing for sometime now. But preparing the charter and finalizing the governance structure will take time,” said one of the persons mentioned above.
Work at the alliance is currently taken up by its temporary executive committee. The person mentioned above also said that the temporary executive committee is likely to meet in April to discuss the way forward for the alliance. The meeting is expected to be on the sidelines of a G20 working group meeting in Brazil.
One of a series of meetings of G20 working groups, the Energy Transition Working Group would meet on 15 April.
“We are looking at having a physical meeting of the temporary executive committee of the alliance soon, may be in Brazil on the sidelines of upcoming G20 meetings in April,” said the person, but added that the committee may not take major decisions on this front. Queries mailed to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas remained unanswered till press time.
This would be second meeting of the temporary executive committee, which has representatives from all the member countries of the alliance. The committee had first met in December on the sidelines of the COP28 in the United
Arab Emirates.
After the first meeting of the committee union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri had tweeted: “Since the launch of #GBA by PM @narendramodi at #G20Summit2023 in New Delhi, we have successfully convened the first Temporary Executive Committee meeting, seen our membership swell to 22 countries & represented #GBA at #CoP28.”
Conceptualized by India during its G20 presidency in 2023, the platform is aimed at bringing together the biggest consumers and producers of biofuels to drive development and deployment of biofuels and reduce the reliance on crude amid ambitious net zero goals.
Panama and Burundi have joined the alliance since the last meeting, said the second person.
The eight G20 countries which are members of the alliance are Argentina, Brazil, India, Canada, Italy, Japan, South Africa and the US. The other member countries include Bangladesh, Singapore, Mauritius, UAE, Iceland, Kenya, Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Finland, Tanzania and Philippines.
The alliance launched on 9 September on the sidelines of the G20 Leadership Summit was initially conceptualized with a view to getting all G20 members on board. However, China, Russia and Saudi Arabia have so far stayed out.
Russia and Saudi Arabia are major crude oil producers. Further, several European countries have also refrained from joining due to concerns over deforestation caused by key source plants such as palm and soy. In an interview to Mint in September, union minister for petroleum and natural gas Hardeep Singh Puri said that the alliance will work on the definition and specification of biofuels, and also increase international cooperation through a virtual marketplace. According to Statista, in 2022, the global biofuels market was valued at nearly $117 billion and may reach $201.2 billion by the end of this decade.
Apr Energy Transition Working Group expected to meet
$201.2 bn likely to be value of biofuels market by end of this decade