Hapag-Lloyd and Kuehne+Nagel sign book-and-claim biofuel deal

The deal will cover about 3,300 TEU of cargo transported on Hapag-Lloyd’s East Asia-North Europe trade lane between April and December.

IMAGE: A Hapag-Lloyd container vessel enters the Port of Hamburg. Hapag-Lloyd

Logistics firm Kuehne+Nagel will claim nearly 3,000 mt of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions from Hapag-Lloyd’s use of biofuel under a new book-and-claim agreement between the two companies.

Hapag-Lloyd will use about 1,000 mt of RED III-compliant waste- and residue-based biofuel across its operated fleet. The resulting emissions reductions are estimated at 2,979 mt CO2e on a well-to-wake basis.

Book-and-claim allows Kuehne+Nagel to claim verified emissions reductions from Hapag-Lloyd’s biofuel consumption, even when the physical biofuel is not used on the specific vessels or routes carrying Kuehne+Nagel’s cargo.

Scope 3 reductions

This agreement will contribute towards Kuehne+Nagel's Scope 3 emissions reduction targets, which accounted for nearly all of its GHG footprint last year. The company aims to reach net-zero emissions across its value chain by 2050.

In 2025, Kuehne+Nagel’s total well-to-wake GHG emissions increased by around 4% to 15.83 million mtCO2e, the company’s annual sustainability report says. Scope 3 emissions made up around 99% of these.

Scope 3 emissions from maritime transport were at 4.80 million mtCO2e in 2025. The roughly 3,000 mt in CO2e reductions it is set to achieve from the deal with Hapag-Lloyd would have made up just 0.06% of its maritime transport emissions from 2025.

The deal is more significant when measured against Kuehne+Nagel’s 2025 book-and-claim activity. The company achieved 65,000 mtCO2e of Scope 3 emission cuts through book-and-claim in 2025. The reductions expected from the Hapag-Lloyd deal would be equivalent to about 4.6% of that total.

As a share of Kuehne+Nagel's biofuel purchasing the deal is yet more significant. The 1,000 mt of biofuelled freight Kuehne+Nagel will buy from Hapag-Lloyd is equivalent to nearly 30% of the 3,335 mt of sustainable marine fuel it bought in 2025.

In recent years, logistics firms have increasingly used book-and-claim deals to claim Scope 3 emissions reductions from biofuel consumed by container lines, even when the fuel is not physically used on the exact vessels carrying their cargo. These deals are helping support biofuel demand among shipping lines as their customers look to cut Scope 3 emissions.

Last December, DHL said it will use CMA CGM’s biofuel consumption to claim around 25,000 mtCO2e of well-to-wake emissions reductions under a book-and-claim arrangement.

In September last year, DHL signed a three-year deal with Hapag-Lloyd to cut supply chain emissions through a book-and-claim system tied to the container line’s use of biofuel on its fleet.

And last week, French food products company Bel said it will buy Scope 3 reductions from CMA CGM, which will bunker vessels with UCOME-based biofuel blends.

By Nachiket Tekawade

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