India's draft resolution on biofuels at MEPC referred to Working Group

India's draft resolution on biofuels at the 80th session of the MEPC of International Maritime Organisation was on Tuesday referred to the Working Group for its consideration and finalisation.

The draft Maritime Environment Protection Committee (MEPC) resolution put forward a biofuel certified by the International Certification Scheme to confirm the sustainability aspects in the Life Cycle Assessment guidelines are being assigned a CO2 emission conversion factor as zero.

The resolution is aimed at facilitating the uptake of biofuels and reducing GHG emissions and was taken up for discussion in the plenary on Tuesday.

India welcomed the decision of the Chair to refer the draft resolution to the Working Group for its consideration and finalisation.

"We believe India would be able to reason out our position on the need of this Resolution to encourage uptake of Biofuels," said Ajithkumar Sukumaran, Chief Surveyor-cum-Additional Directorate General, Ministry of Shipping, representing India at the summit.

The US on Monday became the only country to halt the adoption of an MEPC resolution on biofuel put forward by India at the MEPC session here, demanding further discussions on the matter before recommending it to a working group on air pollution and energy efficiency to finalise the resolution/circular.

While presenting its case, the US stated that no preferential advantage should be given to a particular technology, demanding the IMO to finalise interim guidelines about Life Cycle Assessments on sustainability.

The UK and Canada shared the concerns raised by the US and urged the IMO to finalise the interim guidelines before adopting the resolution.

Thanking Germany, France, and Norway, who supported the resolution and reiterated that it should be considered an immediate requirement, India said that it is working with these countries on an amended resolution/circular, taking into consideration the concerns expressed by some other delegations.

Sukumaran said it would be advantageous to India if it could finalise the resolution/circular in the current session.

He said that India has already operated 11 ships using biofuel and is ready to expand its use in its shipping industry.

India has a "good potential to emerge as a future biofuel supplier even to the international shipping market," he said.

"It's definitely promising for the shipping industry in India, and we wholeheartedly welcome the use of biofuels," CPK Kashyap, Executive Director, Operations, Sanmar Shipping Limited, told PTI.

India is looking to take a leadership position as a potential biofuel supplier to the shipping industry, and the objections from other countries could be because of their commercial interests in developing other green fuels, sources said.