India-Brazil Alliance For Bioenergy and Biofuels
India-Brazil Alliance For Bioenergy and Biofuels
Brazil and India have agreed to work towards the development of an Indian-Brazil alliance for bioenergy and biofuels and will also be establishing a virtual India-Brazil centre of excellence on Ethanol.
Both countries have agreed to make efforts to make sustainable biofuels and bioenergy an integral part of the energy transition, especially for industry, transport, and other sectors that are difficult to decarbonise like shipping and aviation.
These decisions have been taken during Bento Albuquerque’s, Brazil’s Minister of Mines and Energy, visit from April 19th to 21st 2022 wherein he paid a visit to the Indian Minister of Petroleum and Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri.
The existing bilateral cooperation across the field of the energy sector was reviewed and further commitments were made to enhance the beneficial partnership between both countries. The importance of investment by Indian companies in the Brazilian gas and oil sector was also highlighted and their commitment to safeguarding the existing investments was reaffirmed while further bilateral investments were also encouraged. The importance of bilateral trade in oil and its by-products was also highlighted during the meeting and the willingness to expand trade was also discussed. India also expressed in acquiring crude oil from Brazil. The ministers also discussed further bilateral cooperation in nine key areas under two broad focus zones of Technology and future fuels and implementation and scaling up.
The ministers also stressed on bilateral coordination within G-20 on climate and energy, brics energy ministerial, Bio future platform, clean energy ministerial, mission innovation initiative and IBSA joint working group on energy, and the work carried out in the context of the United Nations high level dialogue on energy.
The leaders reviewed the existing bilateral cooperation across the entire spectrum of the energy sector and committed to enhancing the beneficial partnership between the countries, and in this context expressed satisfaction at the important role bilateral energy cooperation plays in deepening the strategic partnership between the two countries.
As of now Indian state-run companies Bharat Petroleum Corp and Oil and Natural Gas Corp have made investments in Brazil’s oil and gas exploration sector.
The two sides recognized the importance of the robust investment is the Brazilian oil and gas sector made by Indian companies and reaffirmed their commitment to safeguarding existing investments while encouraging further bilateral investments. The two sides highlighted the importance of the bilateral trade in oil and its biproducts and expressed their willingness to expand this mutually beneficial trade. The Indian side expressed interest in sourcing crude oil under long term special contracts.
The ministers took note of the conclusions of the joint working group on bioenergy cooperation and identify priorities for further bilateral cooperation in nine key areas as follows under two broad focus zones: Technical Aspects of vehicle use of E20 blends in current fleets, technical aspects of higher blends of ethanol use in flex fuel vehicles, flex fuel technologies – 4 stroke and 2 stroke engines, bio diesel implementation, bio gas/ bio methane policy and incentives, and efficient heat and power generation in sugar and ethanol plants, sustainable aviation fuels- policies, feedstocks and implementation steps, 2nd generation ethanol- policy and technologies and synthetic biology cooperation.
They further agreed that a thriving international market for sustainable bioenergy and biofuels will be essential to the design of low carbon global vehicle platforms, as well as to the development of new technologies and the establishment of economies of scale in the bioenergy sector.
The ministers also agreed that it is critical to reinforce the promotion of sustainable bioenergy and biofuels at the global level, which would diversify options for energy security, boost rural development, bring about technological and industrial innovation and create jobs and opportunities while reducing local and global emissions.