Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate

Trend Asia warns that integrating biofuels into the International Maritime Organization's (IMO) Global Fuel Standard would drive catastrophic environmental and social damage. The statement highlights that food- and feed-based biofuels, particularly those promoted by Brazil, are linked to land grabbing, deforestation, and life-cycle emissions that can exceed those of fossil diesel. It calls for the IMO to instead prioritize energy efficiency, wind assistance, and demand reduction to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

• The use of biofuels in international shipping risks causing greater climate and environmental damage than the oil they replace, including land and water grabbing, loss of food sovereignty, and threats to food security.
• Brazil is promoting biofuels as a long-term shipping solution, but its production of soy and palm oil is already linked to illegal land grabbing, water pollution, and massive land use; soy cultivation in Brazil currently occupies an area comparable in size to Sweden.
• Certain biofuels may be more emissions-intensive than petroleum products; specifically, Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) requires hydrogen mostly derived from fossil fuels, and vegetable oil biofuels can have life-cycle emissions exceeding those of fossil diesel due to land use changes.
• The demand for biofuels drives deforestation and social marginalization in the global South, including impacts on indigenous communities and the exacerbation of gender-based inequalities regarding food security and livelihoods.
• The promotion of Used Cooking Oil (UCO) as a sustainable feedstock creates economic incentives for fraud in Southeast Asia, where virgin palm oil is mislabeled as UCO because UCO prices remain higher.
• Sustainable alternatives to biofuels for shipping decarbonization include stricter energy efficiency standards, innovative ship designs, wind assistance propulsion, and a reduction in the total volume of goods transported by sea.

APA

TrendAsia (2025). Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate. Trend Asia. https://trendasia.org/en/shipping-industrys-biofuels-plan-threatens-rainforests-communities-and-climate/

Chicago

TrendAsia. Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate. Trend Asia, 2025. https://trendasia.org/en/shipping-industrys-biofuels-plan-threatens-rainforests-communities-and-climate/.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=TrendAsia |title=Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate |publisher=Trend Asia |date=17 February 2025 |url=https://trendasia.org/en/shipping-industrys-biofuels-plan-threatens-rainforests-communities-and-climate/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{trendasia2025shipping, author = {TrendAsia}, title = {{Shipping industry’s biofuels plan threatens rainforests, communities and climate}}, publisher = {Trend Asia}, year = {2025}, month = feb, url = {https://trendasia.org/en/shipping-industrys-biofuels-plan-threatens-rainforests-communities-and-climate/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }