KUALA LUMPUR: The Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) has embarked on a mission to Brussels, Belgium to engage in dialogues with European Union (EU) leaders to challenge the EU’s Delegated Act, which classifies palm oil as unsustainable due to “high-risk” indirect land use change (ILUC).
In a statement yesterday, the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) said the two-day mission, from April 8-9, includes Indonesia’s Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Darmin Nasution, MPI secretary-general Datuk Dr Tan Yew Chong and Colombian ambassador Felipe Garcia Echeverri.
It said CPOPC member countries view the Delegated Regulation Supplementing Directive 2018/2001 of the EU Renewable Energy Directive II (the Delegated Act) as a political compromise within the EU.
The Delegated Act aimed to isolate and exclude palm oil from EU’s mandated renewable energy sector to the benefit of EU rapeseed oil and other less competitive imported vegetable oils, said the ministry.
“The claims made by the EU Commission that the Delegated Act is based on scientific and environmental grounds do not bear close scrutiny, and these assumptions have been based on scientifically inaccurate and discriminatory criteria.
“Among other things, soybean oil from selective sources has been categorised as low risk ILUC, despite the EU’s own in-house research concluding that soybean is responsible for far more ‘imported deforestation’,” it said.
MPI said the unsubstantiated criteria used in the Delegated Act, while deliberately focusing on palm oil and deforestation, made no attempt to include broader environmental concerns associated with the cultivation of other vegetable oils, including rapeseed.
“Furthermore, the Delegated Act is viewed by CPOPC as a unilateral instrument directed against palm oil producers, thereby hindering their achievement in poverty alleviation and other United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” it added.
MPI said the council would convey the concerns of both Malaysian and Indonesian governments to the EU leaders and authorities during the mission, and pave the way for an acceptable solution to all parties concerned. –Bernama
