IMO initiates a pushback campaign against biofuels

A number of shipping lines and organizations, including Hapag-Lloyd and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs, are launching a significant campaign to oppose the expanding use of biofuels in shipping. They warn that reforestation would be necessary to cover an area the size of Germany in order to meet the anticipated growth of this alternative marine fuel.

18th Intersessional Working Group on Greenhouse Gases (ISWG-GHG 18) at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) begins, which explores regulatory actions to help the shipping sector achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Many NGOs and shipping companies have come out in force today to protest the growing use of biofuels, claiming that most biofuels made from feedstocks derived from food crops cause direct and indirect deforestation, among other sustainability problems ranging from food security to water scarcity.

According to new research from the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), biofuels could power nearly one-third of global shipping by 2030, up from less than 1% at the moment. According to a study conducted by Cerulogy on behalf of T&E, since palm and soy oil are the least expensive fuels to comply with, they are expected to account for approximately two-thirds of the biodiesel used to power the maritime industry in 2030. T&E says that this presents a significant climate issue since, when deforestation and land clearance are taken into consideration, palm and soy contribute two to three times as much carbon emissions as even the dirtiest shipping fuels available today.

Shipping would require a lot of acreage because it uses a lot of fuel. In 2030, 34 million hectares—the whole area of Germany—will be required to grow enough crops to satisfy the shipping industry’s growing need for biofuels. Following the EU’s 2009 decision to promote the use of biofuels, the use of biofuels derived from palm oil increased between 2010 and 2020, accounting for over one-third of all biofuels used in the EU. Subsequent research revealed that during the same time period, 45% of the growth in palm oil occurred at the expense of carbon-rich ecosystems like forests or peatlands. Comparable results have been found for other feedstocks based on crops, like soy.

Countries including France, Norway, the Netherlands, and others have limited or stopped using palm and soy-based biofuels domestically due to evidence of the detrimental effects. Additionally, Europe has chosen to exclude the use of biofuels derived from food and feed from its main maritime fuels legislation (FuelEU). In order to comply with current and future MARPOL Annex VI standards, signatories have urged the IMO and member states to discourage ships from using crop-based biofuels and to think about removing them from the list of eligible fuels.

Similar issues have been raised in a different letter that was submitted to the IMO and was spearheaded by the Global Forest Coalition and Biofuelwatch.  With a global fuel standard (GFS) expected to be imposed, the IMO will finalize new climate regulations for shipping in April in an effort to phase out fossil fuels. This may either hasten the shipping industry’s shift to renewable energy sources or make it a major market for biofuels. A powerful proposal from Brazil puts biofuels at risk of replacing fossil fuels, which has conservation groups extremely concerned about the plan’s possible effects on the environment and food security.

According to a recent proposal to the IMO by T&E, unless the fuel standard is specifically crafted to exclude these categories, biofuels might account for nearly half (44%) of shipping’s energy consumption by 2035, with the majority coming from crops based on food and feed (soy and palm oil). A few years ago, Biofuelwatch issued a similar warning about aviation. The NGO is concerned that shipping might repeat the same or even worse error now that it has identified a new possible threat.

Although a lot of shipping firms have adopted recycled vegetable oil as an alternative fuel, activists have also criticized this, claiming that there is a shortage of wastes and leftovers, especially animal fats, and that current demand greatly outweighs supply. Furthermore, because biofuels compete with other applications, many of those wastes and residues have large indirect greenhouse gas emissions. A 20,000-teu boxship traveling between China and Brazil would need the annual waste oil from nearly 2,000 McDonald’s restaurants alone, and more than a million pigs would be needed to power it on animal fats.