CAPPA, 68 NGOs warn against biofuels, shipping, cites green impact
By Samuel Ogunsona
Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA) and 68 other international non-governmental organizations have urged the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to exclude biofuels from the Global Fuel Standard (GFS) for international shipping.
In an open letter to the IMO Secretariat on February 17, 2025, the NGOs warned that promoting biofuels as an alternative to petrol in international shipping would threaten rainforests, communities, and the climate.
The NGOs stressed that the design of the Global Fuel Standard should be based on stringent life cycle assessment guidelines that exclude the use of biofuels while protecting the climate, the environment, and the livelihood of people.
They argued that biofuels are not a sustainable solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions from shipping, citing their devastating impacts on climate, communities, forests, and other ecosystems.
“These impacts include land and water grabbing, loss of food sovereignty, threats to food security, and widespread ecological harm,” the NGOs warned. “Instead, the IMO needs to prioritize real solutions for shipping, with clear policy incentives, including demand reduction and efficiency improvements.”
The NGOs also expressed concern about the Brazilian government’s push for the uptake of biofuels in shipping, citing the country’s expanding biofuel industry and its links to deforestation, food insecurity, and water pollution.
“Food- and feed-based biofuels are connected to deforestation, food insecurity, land and water grabbing, and pollution from pesticides, all of which Brazil is already facing,” the NGOs said.
“Neighboring countries are dealing with similar problems, and recent studies show concern for the increased deforestation rates in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela due to the expansion of cropland for soy, oil palm, cocoa, maize, rice, and cassava.”
The NGOs emphasized that sustainable solutions for decarbonizing the shipping sector already exist, including improved energy efficiency, innovative ship designs, and advanced propulsion technologies like wind assistance.
They also stressed the need to reduce the volume of goods transported by sea to minimize the environmental impact of global trade.
“In July 2023, the IMO adopted the Revised GHG Strategy committing to net-zero GHG emissions by around 2050,” the NGOs recalled.
“One of the key policies to achieve this target is the Global Fuel Standard (GFS), which aims to incentivize the use of clean energy on ships. Allowing the use of biofuels under the GFS would jeopardize the very goals the IMO seeks to achieve.” The NGOs mentioned
