EU’s RED Driven by ‘Emotion’

Campaign Heats Up against Palm Biofuel

Green NGOs, anti-biofuel campaigners and competing vegetable oil producers are escalating their campaign against palm oil ahead of the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED) that will take place later this year.

The campaign has recruited politicians, including Member of the European Parliament and ‘centre-right liberal’ Maria Teresa Giménez Barbat, to launch one of the first attacks. In July, she authored a parliamentary question that condemned the use of palm oil in biofuels, claiming that its production leads to deforestation.

What she should have said is that poverty leads to deforestation, and that clearing land and growing crops – oil palm, rice or anything else – is a way of escaping poverty. This is known as forest transition, a key step in a developing the economic path to prosperity.

Ms Gimenez Barbat should have also mentioned that, by growing oil palm, Malaysia has lifted millions out of poverty and built a new rural middle class. Forest transition for oil palm cultivation in Malaysia is done sustainably and in accordance with the law.

Unfortunately, her complaints echo the same tired line propagated by Transport and Environment (T&E), which has released a ‘new’ report attacking palm oil, although such arguments have already been discredited. The United Nations and others clearly recognise Malaysia’s internationally renowned forest protection commitments. Key policy experts also understand that it is unproductive to blame complex social and economic drivers on deforestation.

In response, MPOC CEO Dr Yusof Basiron wrote: ‘The core of T&E’s complaint is that the use of palm oil for biodiesel is rising. This is true though the real increase is nowhere near the amount that T&E claims. Statistics show that more than 50% of the biofuel used in Europe from vegetable oil comes from rapeseed, and only 15% from palm oil. Yet European oilseeds are spared criticism, while NGOs make continuous unfounded allegations against palm oil.’

Here are a few more inconvenient facts for T&E and MEP Giménez Barbat:

• All palm oil imported into the EU as biodiesel must by law, under the RED, meet environmental criteria. That is the case for Malaysian palm oil.
• Malaysia is the world leader in palm oil sustainability – and its government protects over 67% of the land area as forest. It is a commitment unmatched by any EU member-state.
• Malaysian palm oil has an excellent track-record of environmental protection, and this is recognised around the world.
• Malaysian policy ensures that land is available for agricultural development (including palm oil), as well as for forest protection and conservation.
• Palm oil is the world’s most efficient oilseed crop; it produces vastly more oil, using less land, fewer pesticides and less fertiliser than any other vegetable oil, including rapeseed or soybean oils.
• Palm oil supports the livelihood of more than 300,000 smallholders and their families in Malaysia, and around 3 million smallholders in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

This is an edited version of the article posted on ‘The Oil Palm’ on July 27, 2016.