Why in news?  India launched the Global Biofuels Alliance(GBA) in the G-20 Summit 2023

Highlights:

• GBA is similar to the International Solar Alliance (ISA) piloted by New Delhi and Paris in 2015 to bring clean and affordable solar energy within the reach of all.

What is Global Biofuel Alliance ?

• The alliance will collaborate with existing regional and international agencies as well as initiatives in the bioenergy, bioeconomy and energy transition fields.
• It works including with Clean Energy Ministerial Biofuture Platform, the Mission Innovation Bioenergy initiatives, and the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP).
• The main aim of GBA is to accelerate the transition to sustainable biofuels and reduce the world’s dependence on traditional fossil fuels.
• It emphasis on strengthening markets, facilitating global biofuels trade, developing concrete policy lesson-sharing and providing technical support for national biofuels programmes worldwide.

Membership

• India, Brazil and United Kingdom are the founding members of the Alliance
• It include 19 countries and 12 international organisations
• Initiating members include Argentina, Bangladesh, Brazil, Italy, Mauritius, South Africa, the UAE and the U.S. Canada and Singapore are observer countries.

Why the intiative is important to India?

• India has a target to become carbon neutral by 2070
• The US and Brazil are seen as global leaders in biofuels and account for 52% and 30% of global ethanol production that helps to expand the production
• India is looking at blending diesel with suitable biofuels and natural gas with biogas.
• India achieved the target of 10 per cent ethanol blending in petrol in June 2022 year, months ahead of the targeted timeline of November 2022.
• India is the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil and depends on imports to meet over 85 per cent of its requirement of the commodity

What are biofuels?

• Biofuels are renewable energy fuels derived from biomass like crop stubble, plant waste and municipal solid waste.