Biogas Congress: WBA, NDDB MoU to scale waste-to-wealth solutions
The World Biogas Association (WBA) on Wednesday inaugurated its India Congress 2025 with the plenary session, ‘Fueling India’s Biogas Decade’, which brought together a high-profile panel to outline India’s expanding leadership in climate solutions and clean-energy transition.
A Memorandum of Understanding was signed between World Biogas Association (WBA) and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) at the India Congress 2025 in the presence of the esteemed panellists and the audience. The WBA-NDDB MoU strengthens India’s biogas ecosystem by combining global best practices with NDDB’s nationwide dairy network to scale sustainable CBG and waste-to-wealth solutions.
On the occasion, Union Minister for Petroleum and Natural Gas Hardeep Singh Puri highlighted how WBA got together government, investors and industry since its first Congress in 2023 to shape India’s Biogas future.
“With 1,16,000 metric tonnes of waste generated, India is facing an energy and waste challenge. Since India is a natural gas importer, CBG is a path to energy security and sustainability,” Puri said through a video message to the India Congress 2025. The Minister emphasised how WBA serves as a vital platform for India’s goal of 5000 CBG plants.
Addressing the Congress, Pankaj Jain, Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas (MoPNG) said, “India’s energy sector is growing rapidly, with over 50 per cent of electricity now non-fossil. Recent policies have already spurred strong growth in biogas and CBG, and the IEA is working with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to develop a market outlook to guide bioenergy decisions through 2030.”
Adding to Jain's comments, Tarun Kapoor, Advisor to the Prime Minister, warned, India must now rethink its biofuel strategy as ethanol production has surged far beyond current blending requirements. He stated, “Private companies have made significant investments, but sometimes when the government offers a higher price, things tend to go overboard. That is what seems to have happened, leading to an oversupply.”
On #MakingBiogasHappen, envisaging biogas plants in India, Meenesh Shah, Chairperson and MD, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said, “We are facing some clear challenges in the CBG ecosystem. We offer long-term price assurance, but when the discovered market price increases, a fair mechanism is needed to ensure vendors are not at a loss.”
The two-day event, hosted by the London-based WBA at the India Habitat Centre, brings together senior Union ministers, former NITI Aayog leadership, global institutions such as the World Bank and International Energy Agency, and domestic heavyweights including NDDB and Chintan Research Foundation. The Congress aims to act as a bridge between investors, policymakers, and technology developers at a time when India pushes for large-scale expansion of biogas and advanced biofuels.
