Shipping Giants Ask Watchdog to Avoid Biofuels in Green Push

Some major shipping lines including Hapag-Lloyd AG and Louis Dreyfus Armateurs are calling on the International Maritime Organization (IMO) to avoid backing crop-based biofuels as the industry pushes to decarbonize.

“Unless legally-binding safeguards are introduced, there is a risk that a large amount of fossil fuels will be replaced with unsustainable biofuels,” the companies said in a joint statement released February 17 by the European Federation for Transport and Environment, a non-governmental organization known as T&E. When deforestation and land use are taken into account, palm and soy are two to three times worse for the climate than traditional fuels, according to T&E.

The IMO — which oversees shipping within the U…