Ahead of the COP30 climate change negotiations, which open next week in Belém, Brazil, more than 100 members of the global scientific community signed a letter calling on global leaders to limit a dangerous expansion of biofuels. The signees include representatives from the Union of Concerned Scientists and the World Resources Institute.
The letter comes as Brazil seeks high-level support for a leaders’ pledge to quadruple so-called “sustainable fuel” use. This would include doubling of biofuels consumption and is considered a major factor of the international community’s response to the climate crisis.
However, mounting scientific evidence proves that, far from being a climate-friendly solution as many governments claim, this energy source is responsible for 16% more emissions than the fossil fuels they are to replace. It is estimated that doubling biofuel production would increase net global greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 34 MtCO₂e annually, the equivalent of putting 30 million new diesel cars on the road.
The letter warns that this would have devastating environmental impacts in some of the world’s most biodiverse regions; consume scarce water resources and contribute to agricultural run-off. Moreover, scientists also caution that increased biofuel use would exacerbate global hunger by raising food prices, intensifying food price volatility and divert calories from human consumption.
Curbing unrestrained biofuels use is not without precedent. In 2020, the EU agreed to cap conventional (first-generation) crop-based biofuels at a 7% share of its transport energy. Waste- and residue-based biofuels are limited to 1.7% to encourage fuel innovations and reduce land-use impacts.
In biofuel producing nations, such as Brazil and Indonesia, local NGO’s are calling for a holistic approach to manage negative impacts; caps on cultivation, better traceability and investments in community-based governance and decentralized energy.
Brazil’s biofuels push reflects a dangerous resurgence of biofuels as a global commodity threatening to repeat the mistake of the “biofuels gold rush” in the mid-2000’s which prompted large-scale deforestation, biodiversity loss and human rights abuses.
“The evidence is clear; burning crops for fuel is a bad idea. We can’t ignore their effects on the climate, ecology and food security. Governments must turn to truly sustainable alternatives rather than pushing solutions which do more harm than good,” Cian Delaney, biofuels campaigner at T&E.
About T&E
T&E represents Europe’s leading advocates for clean energy and transport. For over 30 years, they’ve shaped key European environmental laws by forcing the EU to set the world’s most ambitious CO2standards for cars and trucks; helped uncover the dieselgate scandal and campaigned successfully to end palm oil diesel. T&E also secured a global ban on dirty shipping fuels and the creation of the world’s biggest carbon market for aviation. In 2022, T&E’s campaigning led to the EU ending the sales of new combustion engine cars and vans by 2035.
