What’s really in your ‘sustainable’ biofuels?

Click here to download Biofuelwatch’s report about the ISCC

Biofuels, especially palm oil, have long been associated with deforestation. That’s why Germany set up the ISCC (International Sustainability and Carbon Certification) in 2010, hoping to encourage the use of wastes and residues in biofuel production, and regulate to prevent land use change emissions.

But an ISCC employee contacted us to say that corn ethanol farms in the USA were being certified, despite routinely failing to meet standards. There were failures in soil and water conservation, inappropriate chemical use, and excessive reliance on fossil fuels.

Cornfields like these are consistently rubber-stamped by the ISCC, despite clearly failing to conserve soil and water.

This whistleblower told us that he repeatedly complained about these practices, but that nothing was ever done. Eventually, he was forced out of his role auditing corn ethanol.

Elsewhere, palm oil producers know that they will get a higher market price for used cooking oil due to its ‘sustainable’ credentials. This inevitably leads to fraud, with virgin palm oil passed off as a repurposed waste product. Sometimes this is as simple as mislabelling fresh palm oil as UCO, but other times it involves convoluted processes – including importing unused vegetable oil, frying potatoes in it, then selling it on at an inflated price!

In 2022, following the invasion of Ukraine, the ISCC de-certified all vegetable oils imported from Russia or Belarus. Yet we also heard from another whistleblower, who told us that back-channel routes through Lithuania, Poland and the Czech Republic allowed these products to be imported into Western Europe.

We know what to call it when industries claim to be ethical and sustainable, without making any real change: Greenwashing.

There’s no room for biofuels in a sustainable future. We should be prioritising genuinely green energy and transport, alongside sustainable agricultural practices and wide-scale nature restoration. You can learn more from our detailed report into the inherent flaws of the biofuel supply chain here, or read a news article about the ethanol whistleblower here.