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NEW DELHI - India is pushing to add more biofuels to its fuel in a bid to shift to cleaner energy. Its target of a 20% ethanol blend in its gasoline by the end of this year aims to reduce both tailpipe pollution and the country's reliance on imported oil and natural gas.  

Biofuels, produced from organic matter like plants, crops or waste, are seen as a greener alternative to the planet-heating fossil fuels that power more than 90% of global transport.

But producing ethanol, which is made mainly from sugarcane and maize, requires land and water use that could have a larger climate impact than fossil fuel emissions.

Meeting the blending target will require diverting land roughly seven times the size of New York City to grow enough biofuel crops, according to an analysis from the Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy (CSTEP), an Indian think tank.

Pressure on land use

India produces nearly 40% of its ethanol from , and the rest comes from grains, according to estimates from Indian credit rating company Crisil.

The country will need to produce 10 billion litres of ethanol by 2025 and 20 billion litres by 2050 to meet its targets, according to CSTEP.

This will entail about 8 million hectares of additional land for maize cultivation by 2030, equivalent to roughly a quarter of India's total agricultural land, the think tank said.

Biofuels have become a popular choice for reducing climate-polluting emissions, with global production reaching 200 million metric tons in 2023.

However, making biofuels emits greenhouse gases even before the fuel is burned, especially if forests have been cleared to grow the crops. And the increased demand for maize may lead to food price inflation, CSTEP said.

Additional water needs

Producing one litre of ethanol from sugarcane consumes about , according to a report by NITI Aayog, the Indian government's public policy think tank.

This could have a severe impact on India's water needs, because most districts are already , the data showed.

With rising ethanol production, the annual average irrigation water demand is projected to rise by 50 billion cubic metres by 2070, CSTEP's analysis showed. That is enough water to meet Delhi's needs for more than 17 years.    

NITI Aayog argues ambitious biofuel targets should only be pursued if there is a breakthrough in technology that significantly lowers the overall land and water footprint of ethanol production.

(Reporting by Bhasker Tripathi; Editing by Jack Graham and Ayla Jean Yackley.)