IEA Report Lauds Indian Policy Support For Biofuel Production

The report also said that the GBA (Global Biofuel Alliance) could help boost biofuel development. “Policy lessons that can be learned from countries such as Brazil, the United States and India that have successfully increased biofuels production at the required pace and scale. The GBA can help disseminate these lessons to other countries and regions,” the report said. 

It also said that more than 80% of biofuel production occurs in just four markets – the United States, Brazil, Europe and Indonesia. “Lessons learned from Brazil, India and the United States to expand biofuel use in other markets must be combined with more substantial efforts to expand sustainable feedstock supply,” the report added. 

The IEA report said that India is the third largest producer of ethanol globally, which tripled in the last five years. The report also claimed that biodiesel production in India stood at less than 1% of the diesel demand. 

To increase biodiesel production, the report emphasized the use of biodiesel produced from cooking, as it could displace 2.5% of diesel use. The report highlights an important lesson for India. It suggested that to access these fuels; it must expand its land productivity to make the most of the cropland. 

In addition, the policy suggested using technology to reduce the lifecycle carbon intensity of biofuels. To achieve this, it added that introducing policies that can provide additional support to increase the lifecycle GHG intensity improvements.  

The report also suggests that India and other countries account for less than half of the global transport fuel demand. Therefore, it indicated that India, among other countries, needed to expand to new markets and increase production in the existing ones.

To achieve this, it elaborated that advancing the production of biofuels through investment could further fill the gap. In addition, creating an internationally recognized sustainable framework could improve the measuring and reporting of GHG reduction and help new markets incorporate a new framework.