Shipping companies including the German shipping giant Hapag-Lloyd and a number of NGOs have called on the UN global shipping agency to exclude unsustainable biofuels from its list of green alternatives to traditional fossil fuels.
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has agreed on ambitious targets to get shipping to zero around 2050, however, it has yet to specify how. National delegates will be in London this week to debate new regulatory measures[1] for decarbonising the shipping industry. Without key safeguards, the new measures could lead to palm and soy oil to skyrocket as they will become the cheapest fuel to comply with lower emission standards, while waste biofuels such as used cooking oil are limited in availability.
Once deforestation and land use are taken into account, palm and soy are two to three times worse for the climate than traditional shipping fuels. The use of palm oil biofuels doubled in the EU between 2010 and 2020, following the introduction of a law promoting biofuels in cars. Using crop land for fuel also puts pressure on biodiversity and food supplies, warns T&E.
Constance Dijkstra, shipping manager at T&E, said: “As things stand the IMO risks doing more harm than good. Palm and soy biofuels are devastating for the climate and they take up vast amounts of land. Instead of creating new problems, the global shipping community must focus on green fuels made from hydrogen. Burning crops is never the answer.”
Countries such as France, Norway and the Netherlands have already restricted or stopped using palm and soy biofuels domestically, while the EU itself has excluded the use of food crops from its flagship shipping fuels regulation (FuelEU).
But at the global level, no such restrictions are proposed. The letter calls for the IMO to exclude crop-based biofuels from regulatory compliance and ensure that crop-based biofuels do not benefit from economic incentives directed towards promoting zero and near-zero emission fuels.
Note to editors
[1] In 2023, the IMO agreed to a new climate strategy that includes reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions “by or around, i.e., close to, 2050.” In the meantime the IMO has set the target of cutting emissions by 20%-30% by 2030 and 70%-80% by 2040, against 2008 levels. A key part of this is the Global Fuel Standard which would force ships to reduce their GHG emissions by switching to alternative – and cleaner – fuels.
