10 November 2025
Climate Action Network rejects the Belém 4X Pledge on Sustainable Fuels, which is co-sponsored by #Brazil, Italy and Japan and supported by India. The pledge calls on countries to expand dubious “sustainable” fuels use globally by at least four times 2024 levels by 2035. The fuels promoted in the pledge include hydrogen and its derivatives, bioenergy such as biogases and biofuels, and synthetic fuels. This initiative is part of a growing trend of bio-based and #Hydrogen fuels being purported as energy and climate solutions.
CAN refutes the idea that bioenergy can be a universal and significant “climate solution” and only supports renewable-based hydrogen and its derivatives that are produced using solar and wind energy primarily and that are used close to the source of production. With few exceptions and targeted applications, bioenergy and hydrogen fuels can only play a marginal role in the energy transition. Scaling up these technologies promotes further extractivism particularly in the Global South, with hydrogen infrastructure and bioenergy crop growth and incursions to natural ecosystems posing serious risks to socio-economic wellbeing, human rights and to the climate itself.
Hikmat Soeriatanuwijaya, Asia Senior Partnerships and Outreach Officer, Oil Change International said: “The Belem 4X Pledge uses the language of sustainability to justify continued fossil fuel use. Southeast Asian communities already know this playbook. Japan has been driving dangerous distractions like ammonia and hydrogen co-firing and CCS in Indonesia under the guise of decarbonization. Japan’s so-called Asia Zero Emission Community initiative is filled with ‘sustainable fuels’ rhetoric that will prolong the use of gas and coal. Meanwhile, 99% of Southeast Asia’s renewable energy potential remains untapped.
A major focus of COP30 will be on Just Transition for food systems, and the protection and restoration of forests, and other ecosystems. The IPCC states that forest protection will have the highest mitigation value (1) however, exploitation of natural forests and cropland for bioenergy undermines this priority. Ambition on food and forests cannot be achieved while also quadrupling the use of these fuels, which would require significant amounts of wood from natural forests, plus monoculture plantations and energy crops across vast areas of land converted for this purpose.
#Bioenergy is usually portrayed as “carbon neutral” or low emissions, however, many biofuels can lead to higher #GHG emissions than fossil fuels. Hydrogen fuel that is produced by burning fossil fuels with carbon capture and storage or from nuclear power, and blended or combusted with fossil fuels cannot be considered sustainable.
Marie Cosquer, Analyst Food Systems and Climate Crisis, Action Against Hunger, said: “Large scale biofuels have in many contexts a track record of being linked to human rights violations, such as land grabbing from smallholders or Indigenous Peoples, and contributes to spikes in food prices and the financialization of land, while big industrial agro-corporations see their power consolidated.”
Hydrogen and bioenergy fuel technologies are expensive and their supply chains uncertain. Direct electrification is far more efficient and cost-effective in its use of renewable power and should be prioritised over the use of hydrogen, hydrogen derivatives or biofuels, such as in the cases of home heating, water heating, power generation and road transport. Energy sufficiency measures, particularly in rich countries, as well as energy efficiency measures should be prioritised to minimise energy and hydrogen demand.
Ruairi Brogan, Senior Policy Officer – Bioenergy and BECCS, RSPB, said: “Growing biofuels can rely on harmful agricultural and forestry practices which place pressure on land use, food sovereignty and biodiversity through promotion of monoculture plantations, GMOs and pesticides. The reliance on logging woody forest biomass as a feedstock for biofuel and also for hydrogen fuel and its derivatives through “gasification”, further harms our precious forest ecosystems.”
For leaders attending the Belém Climate Summit discussions on the energy transition, the priority should be to phase out all fossil fuels and decarbonise power and transport with renewables and to ensure access to energy for all in the Global South. This will not be achieved by scaling up expensive, risky technologies that place undue pressure on the climate, communities and the environment.
Looking ahead to #COP30 in Belém, a sharp focus will be placed on Parties’ climate ambitions. Reliance on these harmful fuels will only weaken the transition away from fossil fuels and serve as a dangerous distraction from a Just Transition.
CAN urges parties not to sign the Belém 4X Pledge on Sustainable Fuels.
Notes to editor
1. IPCC: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change
Read the COP30 Declaration on Sustainable Fuels here
More information on CAN’s position on bioenergy – Adopted CAN-I Position on Bioenergy
More information on CAN’s position on hydrogen – Renewable-based hydrogen – position
Contact: media@climatenetwork.org
