Offshore Energy reported this week that numerous shipping companies had called on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to remove “unsustainable” biofuels from its list of alternative fuel sources.

Supporting this was a recent press release released on February 17 by the European Federation for Transport and Environment (T&E), which revealed that plans currently under development at the IMO risked exacerbating deforestation due to an increased requirement for biofuels such as palm and soy. Such plans could also significantly affect vegetable oil prices.

Environmental association Naturschutzbund Deutschland (NABU) warned that choosing biofuels as the primary source for shipping would be a “fatal mistake that must be stopped as soon as possible”. The organisation’s Head of Climate and Environmental Policy Daniel Rieger added that biofuels would “not stop the climate crisis but will exacerbate the biodiversity crisis”.

Expanding on the point, Rieger noted that instead of serving climate goals, biofuels would “compete with food production and take up huge areas, which often results in the destruction of intact ecosystems. As a rule, these are not only particularly species-rich habitats, but also gigantic CO2 stores such as tropical rainforests, which fall victim to land consumption”. This would, according to Rieger, “ruin” the positive climate benefits of biofuels.

According to T&E analysis, a third of global shipping could potentially be running on biofuels by 2030 – an increase of 1% from this year.

A study – conducted on behalf of T&E by Cerulogy preceding its press release on February 17 – also revealed that palm and soy were responsible for two to three times more carbon emissions than the dirtiest fossil fuels used in shipping today – if deforestation and land clearance was taken into account. With these two fuels remaining the cheapest options, increased usage could pose a serious climate problem.

Shipping manager at T&E Constance Dijkstra concluded that fuelling cargo ships with deforestation was “a terrible idea,” adding: “Burning crops for fuel is bad for the planet and bad for global food security. The IMO should consider the climate impact of bad biofuels to avoid doing more harm than good”.