Transport Biofuels Blending Targets - A Case Study of India

摘要

India, one of the global contributors to carbon emissions with almost 95% of greenhouse gas emissions from its transport sector, devised national policy on biofuels in 2009 to achieve low transport vehicle emissions by adopting clean fuel for vehicles in the transportation sector of the economy. The policy objective was to achieve 20 per cent blending target for biodiesel and for bioethanol by 2017. Later, in 2015, 195 countries signed the legally binding COP agreement in Paris to reduce emissions but this agreement did not provide any specific mechanism for a country to reduce emissions. In the light of the India's national policy on biofuels and the agreement it signed in Paris, it is important to examine how far India been able to achieve its biofuel blending targets by 2017, and what constraints or hurdles it faced or facing to meet those targets? The outcome of this paper could be helpful to develop policy guidelines for policy makers in India and in similar other countries facing similar challenges to emissions reductions. The paper would be based on secondary source of information and data related to Indian transport biofuel sector and related industrial and agricultural sectors of the economy.