Abstract

The transition to renewable energy is essential for addressing climate change, with biofuel positioned as a key transport alternative. Despite Indonesia’s B20 and B30 mandates, public acceptance remains limited, highlighting the need to understand behavioural factors. This study examines the relationships between knowledge, attitude, and perception of biofuel and tests the mediating role of attitude. Data were collected through a 20-item survey completed by 256 public transport users. Structural Equation Modelling was performed using the semopy library in Python. The results indicate that knowledge has a positive but statistically non-significant effect on attitude (β = 0.10; p > 0.05; 95% CI [−0.07, 0.26]), whereas attitude strongly and significantly predicts perception (β = 0.62; p < 0.001; 95% CI [0.38, 0.85]). The direct effect of knowledge on perception was non-significant, suggesting that higher knowledge alone does not necessarily translate into favourable public perception. Mediation analysis also shows that attitude does not significantly mediate the knowledge–perception pathway, as the bootstrap confidence interval includes zero. Model fit indices demonstrate acceptable fit (Root Mean Square Error of Approximation = 0.07; Comparative Fit Index = 0.92; Standardized Root Mean Square Residual = 0.06). Overall, attitude plays a much stronger role than direct knowledge in shaping public perception of biofuel. These findings imply that policy strategies emphasizing attitude formation—such as value framing, community engagement, and trust-building—may be more effective than purely informational campaigns in enhancing biofuel acceptance.