India Becomes 4th Largest Biofuel Consumer Globally in 2024, Surpassing China.

India has officially become the fourth-largest consumer of biofuels in the world in 2024, overtaking China for the first time. With a 40% year-on-year increase in consumption, India is now a major player in the global clean energy transition, reflecting the country’s policy focus on energy diversification and climate goals.

      - In 2024, India’s biofuel consumption reached 77,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (kboe/d), placing it behind only the United States, Brazil, and Indonesia in global rankings.

      - According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) and Rystad Energy, global biofuel demand stood at 2.2 million barrels/day, and India alone accounted for a significant share of the growth in Asia-Pacific, which saw the highest regional increase.

      - Despite the surge in consumption, India’s biofuel production was only 70,000 barrels/day, whereas China produced around 106,000 barrels/day. This means India continues to rely partly on imports or existing stock to meet its domestic demand, underlining the gap between usage and domestic output. Still, production in India grew by 27% over the previous year, showing steady progress.

Main Point :-   (i) Over the past decade (2014–2024), India’s biofuel landscape has transformed significantly. Biofuel consumption has grown at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 31.8%, and production at 30.4%, reflecting consistent policy support and private sector participation. India’s increased focus on clean energy and blending mandates has been a key driver behind this growth.

      (ii) The Indian government has been implementing several initiatives, including the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme, targeting 20% blending by 2025-26. Feedstock sources have diversified to include sugarcane, maize, surplus rice, jatropha, and compressed biogas. Notably, in 2025, the government redirected 5.2 million tonnes of surplus rice toward ethanol production, and India also became a net corn importer, bringing in nearly 1 million tonnes of maize in 2024 to support ethanol blending.

(iii) India’s growing role in the global bioenergy sector aligns with its climate targets, including achieving 50% of power capacity from non-fossil sources by 2030, as per its updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) under the Paris Agreement. Experts believe that with the removal of policy bottlenecks and support for second-generation (2G) biofuels, India could triple its biofuel usage by 2030, making it a leading force in global energy sustainability.