Biofuels will not help shipping reach its net zero emissions goal
Biofuels might seem to offer a simple route for shipping to reduce its net carbon emissions, but some say this view is misguided
This podcast was recorded just a few weeks before two important IMO meetings at which biofuels were expected to be high on their agendas as potential drivers for shipping’s net zero emissions ambitions. But Elissama Menezes, co-founder and director of Equal Routes — an organisation that focuses on communities affected by biofuel production — and Bryan Comer, marine programme director at the International Council on Clean Transportation, explain why they are strongly opposed to its use
SHORTLY before the IMO’s 21st Intersessional Working Group on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships and its 84th Marine Environment Protection Committee meeting, two leading environmental researchers warn those meetings’ expected focus on biofuels will not solve shipping’s carbon emissions problems.
International Council on Clean Transportation marine programme director Bryan Comer explains that decisions on which fuels will qualify under any IMO climate policy are being developed now, along with their corresponding lifecycle assessment guidelines. Any mistake in drafting those guidelines will take decades to fix, he predicts but, as they stand, they do not account for the emissions that correspond to the “indirect land use change” emissions linked to biofuel production, he says.
Elissama Menezes, co-founder and director of Equal Routes, underlines in the podcast the importance of considering the social and economic sustainability aspects of biofuels, and explains why she believes that, if IMO ignores these impacts of biofuels, “we risk a transition that might look green on paper, but creates significant negative impacts on health, pollution and local economies”.
Both speakers explain that biofuel may appear attractive to regulators because of its cost, but they say that, if shipping adopts biofuel, global demand for it will triple by 2035, leading to significant impacts on other food prices and availability, and to environmental damage caused as more land is turned over to its production.
In their podcast, they also raise a range of other concerns; for example, making biofuels from waste products might perversely encourage fraud and the creation of more waste, Menezes says. She is also concerned about biomethane, which poses the same climate risks as its conventional counterpart as a result of methane slip — which is 80 times more potent than CO2.
To produce biofuels in a sustainable way requires “really strong protections”, Comer says, for example to prevent fraud during its production and to protect human rights, water quality and other environmental aspects.
Such models already exist, he says, citing the International Civil Aviation Organization and the FuelEU Maritime regulation. He goes on to say that e-fuels made using green hydrogen are the best zero-carbon fuels, rather than biofuels.
And Menezes reminds listeners that net zero fuels are not the only way to reduce shipping’s emissions. The starting point, she says, should be “the prioritisation of speed reduction and wind propulsion. These are some of the most effective tools we have”.