India to begin bamboo-based biofuel production next year: India's Numaligarh Refinery Ltd (NRL) — a subsidiary of state-owned oil company Oil India — will kick off operations on the country’s first bamboo-based ethanol generation refinery next March, Bloomberg quotes the company’s Managing Director Bhaskar Phukan as saying. The biofuels plant is part of government plans to up its ethanol-gasoline mixing capacity to 20% by 2025 from the current 12% blending levels. The plant is being built by NRL, Finnish state-owned energy firm Fortum, and biorefinery tech company Chempolis at an INR 40 bn investment ticket (c. USD 480.5 mn), Reuters reports. It is expected to have an annual production capacity of 50k tons of ethanol. The bamboo refinery will also have a 16k tons yearly generation volume of furfural and an 11k ton acetic acid output.

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EIB snaps up a portion of Valeo’s maiden green bond: The European Investment Bank (EIB) purchased EUR 150 mn (c.USD 158 mn) of a EUR 600 mn green bond issuance by French automaker Valeo, according to a statement. Valeo says it will channel proceeds from the 5.5 year green note issuance to develop green and low carbon technologies to accelerate the transition to net-zero sources and boost its green mobility portfolio as it works towards its 2050 carbon neutrality commitment. The company has identified around EUR 2 bn eligible clean energy tech projects it could funnel funds toward, including in renewables, energy efficiency, sustainable water and waste water management, and the circular economy.

More to come? The EIB — which has pumped around EUR 750 mn in green financing for the auto sector since 2020 — plans to support up to EUR 1 tn of green investments in the bloc and is “selectively assessing” other investments under its new green bond purchase program, a company spokesperson told Bloomberg.

OTHER STORIES WORTH KNOWING ABOUT THIS MORNING-

• Global coal industry set to shed 37% of its workforce by mid-century: Expected closures at operating coal mines globally are forecast to cut an estimated 1 mn jobs by 2050. Commitments to transition away from coal to meet the Paris-agreed 1.5°C warming threshold would leave less than 10% of the current workforce — only 252.k miners — employed by 2040. (Global Energy Monitor)