Corporate Accountability and Public Participation Africa (CAPPA), Global Justice Ecology Project, Biofuelwatch, National Farmers Union (Canada), Earthjustice International, Proyecto Lemu (Argentina), Australian Forests, Climate Alliance and 61 other international non-governmental organizations have issued a warning to the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) against promoting biofuels as part of the Global Fuel Standard (GFS) for international shipping.
The Global Fuel Standard is a technical measure designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from ships and help meet the IMO’s decarbonization targets, including net-zero GHG emissions by around 2050.
In an open letter to the IMO Secretariat, the NGOs called on the organization’s 176 Member States to oppose biofuels and instead commit to clean energy solutions. The letter comes at a critical time as the IMO finalizes key climate laws for international shipping during a series of meetings in London.
“The IMO must exclude biofuels from the industry’s energy mix due to their devastating impacts on climate, communities, forests, and other ecosystems,” the coalition stated in their letter. These impacts, they warned, include “land and water grabbing, loss of food sovereignty, threats to food security, and widespread ecological harm.”
The organizations noted that shipping currently consumes 5% of global oil production—more than any single country outside China and the United States. They cautioned that plans to replace this massive fossil fuel demand with biofuels could cause “even more climate and environmental damage than oil, not less.”
The letter specifically called out the Brazilian government—set to host the next United Nations Climate Conference (COP30) in November—as one of the key IMO members pushing for biofuels in shipping to expand its biofuel industry. According to the NGOs, Brazil’s palm oil production has been linked to water pollution and large-scale land grabbing, much of it illegal.
“Food- and feed-based biofuels are connected to deforestation, food insecurity, land and water grabbing, and pollution from pesticides,” the letter stated, noting that neighboring countries are experiencing similar problems with increased deforestation rates due to cropland expansion.
Studies cited in the letter show that direct and indirect land use change impacts of biofuels from vegetable oils, especially soy and palm oil, exceed the life-cycle emissions of fossil diesel. The NGOs also highlighted that biofuel production risks exacerbating gender-based inequalities and threatening women’s livelihoods and food security.
Instead, the organizations urged the IMO to prioritize sustainable solutions that already exist, including improved energy efficiency through stricter standards, innovative ship designs, and advanced propulsion technologies like wind assistance. They also emphasized the importance of reducing the overall volume of goods transported by sea as a vital step to reduce global trade’s environmental impact.