India is arguably biggest potential biogas market in world: Charlotte Morton OBE, Chief Executive, WBA

1. You visited India two years ago. What key changes have you observed in the biogas industry since then?

Charlotte Morton: Well, the main difference is real commitment coming from the top of the government – Prime Minister –to really try to facilitate the growth of the biogas/CBG sector. Just a week ago we had the announcement of the GOBARdhan Scheme that’s being developed at record speed with financial backing behind it.

2. How would you rate the World Biogas Congress-2026 in terms of its overall impact on India’s biogas sector?

Charlotte Morton: We’re quite fortunate that World Biogas Congress-2026 has taken place a week after the launch of GOBARdhan. The timing is fantastic. I feel that it’s significantly more positive than a year ago. It’s the 4th Congress that we’ve had. And now the focus is on how we get to move things forward.

3. What’s your vision for India?

Charlotte Morton: Our vision is to support the safe, rapid and professional development of the sector by bringing the experience from outside India to really help the country scale faster. This is arguably the biggest potential biogas market in the world. There’s a huge opportunity for India to take advantage of that experience and really become a leader in this sector.

4. What international best practices has the WBA brought to India this time?

Charlotte Morton: Well, I think the same as before; in the sense that there has been a lot of experience learnt around the world about how you design, build and operate biogas plants. Also, how you overcome challenges like safety issues, performance issues and what’s the most important thing that you need to be focusing on as an operator. So, I think WBA is bringing that experience to very much help ensure that as this sector grows in India and it does so with the benefit of that experience. This includes adopting the anaerobic digestion certification scheme, which is helpful to underpin the good practice in terms of the design, build and operation of biogas plants.

5. What are the key challenges India must overcome to make CBG a success?

Charlotte Morton: I’d probably split those challenges into possibly two parts. One, there are political challenges, which to some extent are the same anywhere, where political will and interests might sort of create barriers. Two there are operational challenges that can more easily be overcome than others. For example, it’s vital that we ensure that people are trained and develop the competence they need to properly manage plants. It’s relatively easy to do and we’re working with the Green Skills Council to help develop. Political issues are always much harder to overcome. So, obviously we can focus most on those challenges that are able to be addressed within, we are able to influence some challenges, and then other things are really where industry needs to come together and work out the solutions that work here in India.

6. With just 200-plus CBG projects, alongside small-scale units, how do companies in developed Western markets, particularly Europe and North America, view India’s biogas sector today?

Charlotte Morton: It probably depends on what type of company we’re talking about. If you’re a component supplier, then you’re quite excited because you can see a big market starting to take off that you can sell your components into. If you’re an EPC contractor or a developer, there’s still a lot to learn and there’s still a lot of challenges that still need to be addressed, and ensuring that it is still possible to build a quality plant. By quality plant I mean one where minimum health and safety standards are included, and there’s a strong focus on minimizing methane slip and leakage, and focus on high performance.

The challenge is still, is the rate of return going to be there for developers to invest to ensure that minimum health and safety standards and the performance standards are able to be met. I was at a plant meeting, and saw lots of methane being leaked which is unacceptable. Its money leaked and it’s an environmental damage and also a health and safety issue. We cannot be an industry that is seen to be causing a problem, putting employees and other stakeholders at risk. That’s something that the industry has to get to grips with. It’s a global issue as well. It’s not just here in India. Globally the industry has to be a high-performing industry and take health, safety and environmental performance.

7. Do you think the growth of biogas has been sluggish here?

Charlotte Morton: Yes, but it is the same everywhere. There are some markets that accelerate very fast. I think we can see the Italian market is growing very fast, the French market is growing particularly fast. A lot of countries have similar challenges, feedstock aggregation, plant performance, getting trained staff etc. I think that’s why we always advocated the need for something like a national biogas mission. The biogas plant therefore requires every element of the ecosystem to be in place for it to work. And that’s why it takes longer to take off, because there are so many elements of that ecosystem that need to be in place.

8. Are Indian developers and EPC players willing to adopt Western best practices, and how?

Charlotte Morton: Ultimately it comes down to money. I mean, any investor would want to see an acceptable return on their money. And this is exactly the same in any country in the world, that if an investor can put their money into, say, solar or another sector, and can make more money for less risk, why would they put their money into the biogas sector? So for any developer to attract finance would be looking to get a specific rate of return. And if that rate of return means they have to cut corners and not put in health and safety measures, then we’ll end up with poorly performing plants where there are risks to employees. I think it’s a challenge to get the pricing right.

9. How do you foresee the industry growing over the next one to three years?

Charlotte Morton: What’s good is to see the commitment from the government. I come from the UK and we have had policy mechanisms for a long time, but there are still constant challenges with those. So, there will be ongoing discussion always about the policy framework that needs to be worked through. We remain committed to bringing experience from outside of India to help provide that knowledge to help speed up that growth and avoid learning similar mistakes.