KUALA LUMPUR (June 24): The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) has urged the European Union (EU) to revise their approach on vegetable oils in biofuels under the framework of Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II).
In a statement today, it said the call was made in light of the upcoming revision of the directive, expected on July 14, as well as the commission’s approaching deadline for adopting rules on certifying low indirect land-use change (ILUC)-risk biofuels and updating the list of high ILUC-risk feedstocks.
The council said it also reiterated its opposition to the criteria laid down in a Delegated Regulation from March 2019 where palm oil is the only crop yielding high ILUC-risk and thus subjected to a freeze and phase-out from the EU’s renewable energy programme.
“The use of ILUC as a policy tool has been fraught with methodological problems and biases from the beginning,” it said.
Therefore, it said a new approach, which treated all sustainable vegetable oils equally based on verified production practices and not on the type of commodity is urgently needed.
“After all, commodities in themselves are not responsible for deforestation — it is the practices that matter,” it said.
CPOPC said major palm oil producing countries of Indonesia and Malaysia, which have interests in the EU’s biofuels programme, have shown commitments and concrete actions to the sustainability of their palm oil production.
It said Indonesia’s moratorium on new licenses for oil palm and Malaysia’s commitment to cap palm oil cultivated areas are just two examples of their sustainable land use management.
Plus, it said the significant decrease of wildfires and deforestation in Indonesia provided firm evidence of the oil producing countries commitment towards sustainable vegetable oil production.
On another development, the council said it acknowledged the EU’s concerns on the efficiency of voluntary certification schemes and looks forward to proving the efficiency of mandatory national schemes in removing deforestation from EU imports.
It said the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil are without peer in the global production of vegetable oils.
“We believe that these twin certification schemes provide the right path towards the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) for both the EU and palm oil producing countries which, ultimately, can be a global model for sustainable vegetable oils.
“Palm oil producing countries look forward to the ongoing EU-ASEAN Joint Working Group on sustainable vegetable oils where a holistic and non-discriminatory approach towards vegetable oils can be developed to meet the Sustainable Development Goals,” it added.
