A Shot in the Arm for Efforts to Promote Newer Biofuels

Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative of 22 countries and the European Union to accelerate innovation in the area of clean energy across the world. It focuses on seven aspects of clean energy including biofuels. India co-leads the programme on biofuels along with Brazil, Canada, and China.

The area of bio-fuel poses several challenges as well as opportunities for governments, researchers, investors, and industry. It has seen rapid strides in terms of research and development. However, there are still challenges as most exciting new bio-fuels still remain at an early-commercial stage of development.

A two- day International Conference to take stock of current knowledge, share information and best practices, and build consensus on the actions most needed to move forward began here today. Over 300 officials, technical experts, academicians, researchers and investors from 18 countries are participating in the event organized by Department of Biotechnology.

Inaugurating the conference, V.K. Saraswat, Member, NITI Aayog, emphasized the need to promote renewable and other clean energy options in the wake of growing concerns over the issue of climate change and expressed the hope that the collective wisdom of the participating countries can help foster a revolution in this regard.

Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary Department of Biotechnology and Department of Science and Technology, noted that India has already taken steps to double the level of investment on research and development in the area of clean energy as per the target set under Mission Innovation. “India is keen to realize the goals of Mission Innovation at the earliest and has been taking all necessary to make this possible”.

Dr. Renu Swarup, Senior Advisor, DBT, welcoming the gathering, said the conference aimed to provide a common platform for the various stakeholders to exchange experiences and challenges related to development and scaling of advanced biofuels. Among other things, it was designed to will focus on concerns of the private sector to speed up large-scale production of biofuels.

A “New Delhi Declaration on Sustainable Bio-fuels”, prepared by Mission Innovation in consultation with member countries is scheduled to be endorsed and announced at the end of the conference. (India Science Wire)

By Sunderarajan Padmanabhan

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