Tuesday, April 27, 2010
EU is BIASED AGAINST PALM OIL
Posted on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 by meirizka
EU and their unfair attitude!!! How can they act to benefit them all the way?
The EU is favouring domestic biofuel by imposing a 'default' greenhouse gas (GHG) saving level. Read the article below and do click on the link at the most bottom to see the reports from GlobEcon a German Research Institute.
EU sustainability rules 'biased' against palm oil
A European Parliament meeting today heard accusations of bias against competitive palm oil-based biodiesel from south-east Asia in the EU's contentious renewable fuels mandate.
The EU is said to favour domestic biofuel sources by imposing a 'default' greenhouse gas (GHG) saving level for foreign palm oil which falls below the 35% minimum threshold for supplying fuel towards the EU renewable targets.
The default GHG saving - which is set at 19% for palm based biodiesel - is assumed if an exporting country cannot account for methane capture on every tonne of the shipment, a condition deemed to be highly unrealistic. Domestic EU production can meanwhile fall back on higher default GHG savings for every biofuel feedstock, including palm oil.
It was asserted that the penalisation of palm-based biodiesel runs against EU attempts to ensure that the biofuels used for its renewable fuel targets have the greatest overall environmental benefits; full life-cycle analysis is said to tip the environmental balance in favour of palm oil and against other oilseed biodiesel sources such as rapeseed (used extensively in the EU), which requires more land and more carbon-intensive fertiliser per unit of energy produced.
'Protectionist' bent to EU policy
The case is made in a new paper from German research institute GlobEcon, presented today at a European Parliament hearing hosted by the Land Use and Food Policy Intergroup.
GlobEcon's Dr Gernot Pehnelt said that "the EU has embedded protectionist measures into the Directive at the behest of anti-development environmentalists and the uncompetitive European biofuels industry.
"Furthermore, the report demonstrates the rich biodiversity in oil palm plantations, the excellent crown cover oil palms provide and the yield per hectare advantages of this low-energy, low-fertilizer crop."
Pehnelt acknowledged that palm oil plantations do incur biodiversity loss when prime forest land is converted in species-rich countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, but reiterated the small share of biodiesel demand (even in light of the EU mandate) in overall palm oil expansion, and asserted that all economic activity has an environmental cost.
Environmental threat 'bigger than for other agrifuels'
While sceptical of the overall benefits of biofuels, environmental groups have taken a particularly tough line on palm oil - and have been keen to ensure that European biofuel demand does not exacerbate existing environmental problems related to the crop.
Ariel Brunner, Senior EU Agriculture Policy Officer at Birdlife International, told Agra Europe that while palm oil is a highly competitive biofuel with low land use requirements, current production patterns in south-east Asia raise a host of specific environmental problems and should put the feedstock (along with others) out of bounds for the EU's renewable fuels mandate.
Current sustainability criteria put certain environmentally sensitive areas such as undrained peatlands and biodiverse forests off limits, but major loopholes are seen to allow recently drained areas and secondary forest-land to be used, with a huge GHG and biodiversity cost. These risks are so great that even sourcing a fifth of the new 10% renewable fuels target from palm oil would negate the environmental benefits of other biofuel use, he argued.
Brunner said that EU "artificial demand" formed by the renewable fuels mandate and tax risks adding to problems which, he acknowledged, predate and go beyond biofuel production.
He indicated that using European rapeseed-based biodiesel to meet the EU targets could end up applying the same pressure on biodiversity-rich natural areas, given that Asian palm oil production would in any case expand into new areas to substitute for the oilseed areas shifted from food to fuel in the EU.
This indirect land use change (ILUC) phenomenon is the subject of internal debate in the European Commission - and could end up being factored into the sustainability criteria for fuels used towards the targets (see AE2406, 02.04.2010, P/10).
Meanwhile palm oil has been the subject of stand-alone efforts from the food industry to clean up the environmental impact of palm oil, centering on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification scheme (see AE2405, 26.03.2010, Analysis).
For the full GlobEcon report see:
http://www.globecon.org/en/publications/globecon-research-papers.html
The EU is favouring domestic biofuel by imposing a 'default' greenhouse gas (GHG) saving level. Read the article below and do click on the link at the most bottom to see the reports from GlobEcon a German Research Institute.
EU sustainability rules 'biased' against palm oil
A European Parliament meeting today heard accusations of bias against competitive palm oil-based biodiesel from south-east Asia in the EU's contentious renewable fuels mandate.
The EU is said to favour domestic biofuel sources by imposing a 'default' greenhouse gas (GHG) saving level for foreign palm oil which falls below the 35% minimum threshold for supplying fuel towards the EU renewable targets.
The default GHG saving - which is set at 19% for palm based biodiesel - is assumed if an exporting country cannot account for methane capture on every tonne of the shipment, a condition deemed to be highly unrealistic. Domestic EU production can meanwhile fall back on higher default GHG savings for every biofuel feedstock, including palm oil.
It was asserted that the penalisation of palm-based biodiesel runs against EU attempts to ensure that the biofuels used for its renewable fuel targets have the greatest overall environmental benefits; full life-cycle analysis is said to tip the environmental balance in favour of palm oil and against other oilseed biodiesel sources such as rapeseed (used extensively in the EU), which requires more land and more carbon-intensive fertiliser per unit of energy produced.
'Protectionist' bent to EU policy
The case is made in a new paper from German research institute GlobEcon, presented today at a European Parliament hearing hosted by the Land Use and Food Policy Intergroup.
GlobEcon's Dr Gernot Pehnelt said that "the EU has embedded protectionist measures into the Directive at the behest of anti-development environmentalists and the uncompetitive European biofuels industry.
"Furthermore, the report demonstrates the rich biodiversity in oil palm plantations, the excellent crown cover oil palms provide and the yield per hectare advantages of this low-energy, low-fertilizer crop."
Pehnelt acknowledged that palm oil plantations do incur biodiversity loss when prime forest land is converted in species-rich countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia, but reiterated the small share of biodiesel demand (even in light of the EU mandate) in overall palm oil expansion, and asserted that all economic activity has an environmental cost.
Environmental threat 'bigger than for other agrifuels'
While sceptical of the overall benefits of biofuels, environmental groups have taken a particularly tough line on palm oil - and have been keen to ensure that European biofuel demand does not exacerbate existing environmental problems related to the crop.
Ariel Brunner, Senior EU Agriculture Policy Officer at Birdlife International, told Agra Europe that while palm oil is a highly competitive biofuel with low land use requirements, current production patterns in south-east Asia raise a host of specific environmental problems and should put the feedstock (along with others) out of bounds for the EU's renewable fuels mandate.
Current sustainability criteria put certain environmentally sensitive areas such as undrained peatlands and biodiverse forests off limits, but major loopholes are seen to allow recently drained areas and secondary forest-land to be used, with a huge GHG and biodiversity cost. These risks are so great that even sourcing a fifth of the new 10% renewable fuels target from palm oil would negate the environmental benefits of other biofuel use, he argued.
Brunner said that EU "artificial demand" formed by the renewable fuels mandate and tax risks adding to problems which, he acknowledged, predate and go beyond biofuel production.
He indicated that using European rapeseed-based biodiesel to meet the EU targets could end up applying the same pressure on biodiversity-rich natural areas, given that Asian palm oil production would in any case expand into new areas to substitute for the oilseed areas shifted from food to fuel in the EU.
This indirect land use change (ILUC) phenomenon is the subject of internal debate in the European Commission - and could end up being factored into the sustainability criteria for fuels used towards the targets (see AE2406, 02.04.2010, P/10).
Meanwhile palm oil has been the subject of stand-alone efforts from the food industry to clean up the environmental impact of palm oil, centering on the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) certification scheme (see AE2405, 26.03.2010, Analysis).
For the full GlobEcon report see:
http://www.globecon.org/en/publications/globecon-research-papers.html
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1 Response to "EU is BIASED AGAINST PALM OIL"
Where are the "strong" voices who are users of palm oil? Where are the voices of those whom tax payers have spent millions over the years to educate them about palm? Are they not convinced themselves? If you are convinced, come on, "shout" back and show your support for this wonderful oil.
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