The Biggest Thing Anywhere Ever? The story behind the Global Biofuels Alliance

Last week on the main stage at the G20 Heads of State meetings in New Delhi, there was a photo call with Indian prime minister Modi, Brazil’s president Lula da Silva, and US President Joe Biden, among many other heads of state, celebrating the foundation of the Global Biofuels Alliance.

It was certainly the highest visibility event for the bioeconomy in at least 20 years, and maybe for all time. Coverage, most of it highly positive, followed in countless major media outlets. Lula described the foundation of the Alliance as the highlight of the G20 meetings for himself — it was a big, big win for the optics.  

You would be forgiven for thinking to yourself: at last! At last they recognize that hard-to-decarbonize sectors are not going away and only biology can supply the carbon we need from the carbon we have. That’s the story, but is it all the story and nothing but the story? Let’s look into that today.

As we do here in Digestville, let’s quickly move to the hard data. 

What is it?

Here’s the official read-out from the G20 meeting.

The Global Biofuel Alliance is an initiative by India as the G20 Chair. The Alliance intends to expedite the global uptake of biofuels through facilitating technology advancements, intensifying utilization of sustainable biofuels, shaping robust standard setting and certification through the participation of a wide spectrum of stakeholders. The alliance will also act as a central repository of knowledge and an expert hub. GBA aims to serve as a catalytic platform, fostering global collaboration for the advancement and widespread adoption of biofuels.

The Who

The members. On stage, you saw Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi along with the leaders of Singapore, Bangladesh, Italy, USA, Brazil, Argentina, Mauritius and UAE. 

Canada, South Africa, Bangladesh, Singapore, Mauritius, UAE, Iceland, Kenya, Guyana, Paraguay, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Uganda and Finland have also joined. Along with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, World Economic Forum, World LPG Organization, UN Energy for All, UNIDO, Biofutures Platform, International Civil Aviation Organization, International Energy Agency, International Energy Forum, International Renewable Energy Agency, and the World Biogas Association.

The Goals

We’ll mention these.

1. Deployment. Bringing together major consumers and producers to drive biofuels development and deployment, including “capacity-building exercises across the value chain, technical support for national programs and promoting policy lessons-sharing”. 

2. Marketplace. There’s a virtual marketplace under consideration to assist in mapping and matching supply and demand. 

3. Policy. Plus, the Alliance will “facilitate development, adoption and implementation of internationally recognized standards, codes, sustainability principles and regulations to incentivize biofuels adoption and trade.”

So, a lot of command-and-control from the very top to drive adoption — with the stated underlying goals of increasing farm income, promoting energy security, job creation and development of trade in technology, equipment as well as the products.

What’s missing?

The financial industry and investors in general. An actual scope of work. A leadership team. None of those impossible to produce, but none of those (yet) done — so, consider the Alliance to be a work in progress, for sure, and make some allowances when it comes to timelines and scope. 

Look Southward, Pard’ner

One way to look at this announcement is to see India, using its presidency of the G20 this year as a platform to launch this initiative — if the line-up of nations was less than the G20, if the scope of work is still a little fuzzy, never mind. Brazil has the presidency of the G20 next year, it’ll be their job to add more members and definition.

It’s tempting to see India-US-Brazil and focus on India-US or the US alone. In this case, that would be a mistake. Look south.

The Global South has an awful lot of biomass, lacks the infrastructure to execute decarbonization via “electrify everything”, would like to build export markets to improve farm income, and wants this sector to thrive. Brazil couldn’t agree more. The US has been divided, Europe has been unhelpful at the Brussels policy level even if terrific in the technology arena. Despite an underwhelming response when India first floated the outline of this Alliance within the G20 community some time ago, and the obvious absence of meaningful support from Europe (excepting Italy, Finland and Iceland), they’ve decided with the Brazilians to go forward, for years if necessary, if necessary, alone. 

The BRICS

Absent from the G20 stage were Russia’s President Putin and China’s President Xi, who joined the other members of the BRICS alliance (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), in announcing last month that they are increasing their group to a total of twelve members with the adds of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Ethiopia, Egypt, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates. Applications have been received from 14 other nations, including Bahrain, Kuwait, Thailand and Vietnam. A number of African nations plus Turkey and Syria are reported to be interested in this attempt, frankly, to create a rival to the G20 and shift more voice to the Global South in the global dialogue — with China and Russia merrily encouraging this rival to North American-European hegemony in world affairs, and using an accidental association to effect it. After all, BRIC is an acronym coined by a Goldman Sachs analyst, it just happened to become useful.

Not every nation in the BRICS is a nation that aims at destroying the G20. Some things are easier to do within the G20, such as this Alliance. What does Russia care about biofuels? And, lately, what does China?

A bidding war has emerged for India’s friendship, the Global Biofuels Alliance being table stakes for the United States in its long-term aim to replace China with India as its major US trading partner in that region of the world.

Why Jelly in Delhi?

Yes, the US has a long-standing interest in bioenergy R&D, and deep investments, but the US Trade Representative office would be queasy at the idea of subjecting US trade policy to a “virtual marketplace” in biomass operated by a political organization. After all, the US is still deeply divided over Obamacare and single-payer medical insurance.  It wasn’t so many years ago that critics of ethanol dubbed it “Government Gas”. Government exchanges, mandates, private players controlled by a government regulator? Get out the Obamacare playbook, please.

So, yes, the Alliance is framed in vague terms. For now, a strength.

An actual, vibrant international development agency for agriculture-based energy is something the US went to some lengths to discourage in the heyday of the old Global BioEnergy Partnership, known as GBEP.

Climate is more urgent now than in the GBEP heydey, yes, and bioenergy is a powerful tool in the climate arsenal. But, in the arena of bioeconomy deployment the Biden Administration has been decisive in its indecision, committed to non-commitment — one footsie in to placate the heartland, one footsie out to placate the “electrify everything” crowd. For the Great Invertebrates of Washington DC, an Alliance made of jelly might be just the recipe.

What changed?

What’s really changed is not US attitude, but the global set-up. The world is not an American-European stage — hasn’t been for a while, but less so now than ever, excepting for the power of a revived NATO to redefine the conflicts on the eastern side of Europe.

The Middle East? They’re joining the BRICS in droves. And, you have to say, you wonder how we could possibly live in a world where the Emirates are joining the Global Biofuels Alliance at the outset, and no France. Iceland but no Germany, Singapore but no Malaysia, Bangladesh but no Thailand.

It’s interesting, the Emirates. Yes, they’re joining a lot of initiatives, yet they have a massive sovereign wealth fund and can see the headwinds that will come from the reliance on oil. HQ’ing this Alliance in Dubai might send the very signal that the world has shifted south, decisively, that the global bioeconomy needs.

Calling in the Coordinates

Futuria Fuels CEO Rebecca Groen (Futuria is the dedicated business unit within SHV Energy for renewable liquid gas development) said that Futuria aims to play a key role in this initiative, and commented:

BREAKING NEWS! Yesterday the much-anticipated Global Biofuels Alliance (GBA) was launched at the G20 Summit in India. The platform will bring in synergies between G20 nations, international associations and industrial partners for sustainable biofuels production, trans-national energy financing, technology partnerships as well as developing appropriate policy and legal frameworks. 

That’s a terrific summary of the ambition, that “what might the Alliance be one-day”. We’ll see whether this government-led, government-run Alliance will be able to nimbly foster trans-national energy financing and so forth. I have long suspected, since first getting word of the Alliance, that the organization needs a counter-party based in industry, to avoid the oft-repeated sin of spending a whole bunch of money on something that isn’t needed or doesn’t work. Think of the Alliance as a big, bright green piece of powerful artillery that needs some grunts in the field to call in the coordinates. 

The four tasks ahead?

Right now, Job #1 is defining. The Alliance needs a scope of work. Where are the gaps, the barriers, the conflicts? Measuring the symptoms precedes the diagnosis and cure. 

Job #2 – leadership. Great alliances come from great people, so that’s a must. 

Job #3 – broaden the membership. It doesn’t have to be France and Germany. Denmark and South Korea have no business being outside this.  The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Thailand and Japan – needed!. I’d like to see Australia and Indonesia.

Job #4. If it’s about the Global South, say so. That’s a vision that can bring hope and energy security to Africa, the Middle East, South Asia. Why not? Nations that receive a support and boost to their farm incomes, energy security and national economic development goals, they will remember who was helpful.

About that Job #3

I mentioned countries, but companies and people matter. So, Danes, Koreans, Brits, Dutch, Thais, Japanese, Aussies, and Indonesians — perhaps the hour has come for you to step forward in a new level of leadership and engagement.

The Bottom Line

The Global Biofuels Alliance is here. Huzzah! Who are the Allies, where is the war, who are the generals, what is the plan? All questions to be answered, some under Brazilian leadership. 

And if you ever have a chance to look at the beautiful Brazilian flag, you’ll note the phrase there, “ordem e progresso”. Order and progress. Yes, that’s what the Global Biofuels Alliance, masterfully birthed by India, just might need.