Emerging markets seek policy reform and investment for biogas

Emerging economies are urging stronger international collaboration, policy reform, and investment to unlock the full potential of biogas as a decentralised green energy option.

That was the message from the ‘Unlocking Biogas Potential in Emerging Economies’ session at the World Biogas Summit 2025, which brought together speakers from Mexico, South Africa, Singapore, India, and Argentina. Participants shared progress and the most persistent barriers across their respective regions.

Dr Abel Clemente Reyes, President of the Asociación Mexicana de Biomasa y Biogás, who presented on Mexico’s evolving biogas policy, said, “The top priority at this very moment is to take advantage of the new law,” referring to the country’s recently updated biofuels rules.

“The … regulations here are being updated. That means a lot of chances. [W]hat the government is looking for is that distributed generation or decentralised generation can be achieved by private companies.”

Mexico’s new legislation includes circular economy principles, energy efficiency targets, and permits the import and export of biofuels, which Dr Clemente described as “a clever idea” to attract investment and more.

“If you are going for the good ones, you get clean energy. If you are going to the bad ones, you have taxation,” he said, referring to carbon taxes now being introduced by a growing number of Mexican states.

The private sector has already begun responding to these regulatory shifts. Solvay recently inaugurated a biodigester at its Ciudad Juárez site to process organic waste and generate biomethane, reducing the plant’s CO2 emissions by 12% compared with 2021 levels.

South Africa is also seeing rising interest from private companies and municipalities, according to Alberto Borrello, Managing Director of Energia and former Secretary General of Sabia. However, he warned that under-enforced environmental legislation remained a key barrier to progress.

“I think that the top priority in South Africa is to implement everything: legislation of diversion of organic [waste] and implement separate collection at source. That, we know, is required for successful biogas projects,” he said.

Energia has implemented multiple projects across Africa, including facilities for drinks companies PepsiCo and Heineken in South Africa. PepsiCo’s Isando plant, for example, processes 30 tonnes of food waste per day to generate around 800kW of power, meeting 30% of the facility’s peak energy needs.

Another landmark is the Bio2Watt Malmesbury facility, a 4.8MW biogas-to-power plant using dairy waste, with electricity sold under a power purchase agreement to South African Breweries.

In India, Dr Dilip Kumar Kher, Technical Advisor to the World Biogas Association, highlighted the country’s ambitious compressed biogas programme but pointed to implementation and finance gaps.

“We are presently producing about 3,000 tonnes per day,” he said. “But the opportunity is like managing 60,000 tonnes per day.” India’s SATAT biogas scheme targets 5,000 compressed biogas (CBG) plants, but only 75 are currently operational.

India’s biogas market is being advanced through initiatives like the National Bioenergy Programme and the Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) scheme ©Fortune Business Insights

“We need blended … low-cost finance. We need finance for the working capital because these bio-CNG plants collect material in two months, and their entire revenue stream comes in 12 months’ time,” Dr Kher said.

One public initiative aiming to scale production is in Mumbai, where the state of Maharashtra has allocated land for new plants that will process 1,000 tonnes of wet waste per day and generate an estimated ₹74 crore ($9m) annually in compressed biogas revenue.

In Asia Pacific, Hillman Putra, Biomethane Strategist at ACT Commodities, said Singapore’s heavy reliance on natural gas made it a natural hub for biomethane but a lack of clear regulation was holding back demand.

“The most important thing to enable biomethane here is to establish a clear guidance on how biomethane can be consumed and be reported in [greenhouse gase] accounting,” said Putra. “Once there is a clear pathway… I believe they have all the capacity financially to support biomethane development [including] in the neighbouring countries.”

Argentina’s biogas sector is constrained by competition with cheap shale gas and a national shift away from subsidies. Jorge Antonio Hilbert of Energy & Environment Consulting said future growth must focus on new revenue streams.

“We are convinced that biogas will not survive only with feed-in tariffs,” said Hilbert, who advocated for integration with ethanol plants and carbon farming models.

The session underscored the global south’s enthusiasm for biogas but also highlighted the need for enforceable legislation, clear pricing structures, long-term offtake commitments and scalable public-private partnerships.

“We always look forward to evaluation,” said Dr Kher. “The potential is enormous. The opportunities are enormous. [The only thing to note is that] persuasion is required.”