A group of shipping companies and the environmental organization NABU are calling on the IMO to remove “unsustainable biofuels” from its list of alternative fuels.
“Biofuels are a fatal mistake that must be stopped as soon as possible. Fuels from cultivated land will not stop the climate crisis but will exacerbate the biodiversity crisis,” reads a recent letter from NABU.
So-called biofuels compete with food production and require vast amounts of land, often leading to the destruction of intact ecosystems. “These areas are not only particularly rich in biodiversity but also serve as massive carbon reservoirs, such as tropical rainforests, which fall victim to land consumption. This completely undermines the supposedly positive climate balance of biofuels and turns it into its opposite,” says Daniel Rieger, NABU Head of Climate and Environmental Policy.
According to a NABU press release, the German container shipping company Hapag-Lloyd also opposes the use of biofuels derived from agricultural crops in shipping. Hapag-Lloyd, together with Norwegian Hurtigruten, Höegh Autoliners, and other companies, has signed a letter to the UN International Maritime Organization (IMO), warning of the dangers in collaboration with NGOs.
“Biofuels should not be used”
“We at Hapag-Lloyd agree with environmental NGOs that biofuels from agricultural raw materials should not be used. Decarbonization is a shared goal, and it must be based on thorough life cycle assessments while protecting biodiversity and ensuring food security. Incentives for decarbonization should focus on scalable, sustainable solutions that support both people and the planet rather than those that harm ecosystems or local communities,” said Arne Maibohm, Director of Decarbonization at Hapag-Lloyd.
Without clear criteria for fuels, new regulations could lead to palm oil, for example, becoming the cheapest fuel option to meet new emission standards.
Many European countries and the EU have already restricted the use of biofuels made from palm oil and soy, including in the shipping industry. However, at the global level, such restrictions are not yet in place, meaning that significant quantities of these problematic fuels are still being burned in ship engines—often with the best of intentions.
“In our joint letter, we call on the IMO to exclude fuels derived from cultivated biomass from economic incentive schemes. Instead, these mechanisms must be designed to promote genuinely sustainable solutions. Rather than creating new problems, the global shipping industry must focus on truly green fuels based on hydrogen,” said NABU shipping expert Sönke Diesener.
