Niluksi Koswanage, Reuters 2 Nov 09;
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Planned palm oil carbon emission targets will be delayed by at least a year as planters clash with NGOs on calculating the vegetable oil's environmental impact, officials said on Monday.
The measure was aimed at combating the negative image of palm oil output, which green groups say has been partly fueled by producers in Southeast Asia cutting down swathes of rainforests and draining carbon-rich peatlands.
But Malaysian and Indonesian producers say imposing limits on land expansion based on greenhouse gas emissions was an unfair barrier to trade as oil palm estates could act as net carbon sink.
The CO2 targets were delayed by a year pending further study and watered down to a voluntary undertaking during the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that brings together producers, buyers and NGOS this week in the Malaysian capital.
"We are disappointed because we wanted the target for this year," said Jan Kees Vis, chairman of the RSPO, which has been tasked with formulating a green standard for the industry.
"However, looking at how even the Copenhagen climate talks may not even reach a resolution in December, perhaps its not too bad. It's part and parcel of trying to get everyone to agree."
Once hailed as a biofuel feedstock that can cut the world's reliance on petroleum diesel, palm oil now struggles with a negative image that estate expansion fuels climate change.
New oil palm estates often replace tropical forests that absorb carbon dioxide and production of the vegetable oil releases high quantities of methane gas, scientists and green groups say.
Palm oil producers say CO2 standards such as the European Union's move to use biofuels that reduce emissions by at least 35 percent versus fossil fuel in 2010 are trade barriers, sidelining palm oil which the E.U. considers to save 19 percent.
DIFFERENCES
Differences over palm oil's eco-credentials have often made it difficult for the RSPO to come up with a consensus.
It was only last year that producers and green groups hammered out a set of criteria for palm oil produced without harming wildlife or displacing local communities, despite the RSPO being in existence since 2002.
"We agree on some conditions and then they (green groups) throw something at us," said a Malaysian planter who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
"I won't be surprised in some of the planters get fed up and walk out of this."
Part of the producers' anger stems from the slow uptake of certified green palm oil during the economic crisis, observers said. WWF last week issued a buyer's scorecard that showed most European palm oil buyers have shunned green palm oil priced at a premium.
"The scorecard will benchmark the industry. There is some progress with palm oil buyers, the producers should be heartened by this," said Adam Harrison, senior policy officer of WWF International, who came up with the scorecard.
(Editing by Michael Urquhart)
European palm oil buyers shun 'eco-friendly variety'
Beh Lih Yi AFP Google News 2 Nov 09;
KUALA LUMPUR — European palm oil buyers who are refusing to purchase expensive eco-friendly palm oil were named and shamed Monday by environmental campaigners WWF International.
Only 10 out of the 59 major retailers and manufacturers surveyed in an industry scorecard have lived up to their commitments to buy "sustainable" palm oil which is manufactured according to strict standards, it said.
At an industry conference in the Malaysian capital, WWF said that less than one-fifth of the 1.0 million tonnes of sustainable palm oil produced in the past year has been sold.
"There are those companies which have shown it can be done," WWF International senior policy officer Adam Harrison told a press conference.
"For everybody else we need to make sure the pressure is there and they follow through with action."
Palm oil -- used extensively across the globe for biofuel, processed food and toiletries -- has been vilified by environmental campaigners for causing deforestation and threatening the survival of species such as orangutans.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 to establish stringent social and environmental criteria including a ban on clearing forests in order to plant the crop.
But the WWF scorecard showed that while companies such as Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer in Britain and Migros of Switzerland were meeting their pledges to use more expensive sustainable palm oil, others were not.
Those on the bottom of the list included Danone of France and giant retailer Aldi.
WWF said that 19 of the 59 companies scored between zero and three out of 29 possible points, "meaning that they have taken very little or no action to curb their use of non-certified palm oil".
It urged the better-performing firms to move towards using 100 percent certified palm oil, and said that another review would be conducted in two years, eventually expanding to include palm oil buyers in other regions.
"Many producers have been disappointed with the very slow offtake of certified sustainable palm oil," said Carl Bek-Nielsen from United Plantations, one of the best-regarded operations in Malaysia.
He said that just five percent of its certified production had been sold as sustainable, with the small premium it attracts.
"Before RSPO palm became available, there were many people who were screaming and shouting for RSPO palm. When it became available, most of these big buyers just disappeared out the door like greased lightening," he told AFP.
"They have let the producers down in a way. They have asked us to go ahead and produce this thing and live up to these very stringent criteria -- the strictest for any agricultural crop."
Bek-Nielsen said the industry reluctance had "cost us a lot of money" but that the WWF scorecard was a landmark in raising awareness, and he was hopeful things would now improve.
WWF also said it was heartened by pledges from dozens of companies to lift their use of sustainable palm oil.
"The commitment is there, we know those volumes will come in over the next three or four years," Harrison said.
"The number of phone calls enquiring about certified palm oil is increasing. There is a lot of optimism that it's going to rebalance itself."
Malaysia is the world's second-largest exporter of palm oil after Indonesia, and the industry is the country's third largest export earner, raking in 65.2 billion ringgit (19 billion dollars) last year.
Q+A: Palm planters, buyers and NGOs face off at roundtable
Niluksi Koswanage, Reuters 2 Nov 09;
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - The palm oil industry confronts critics and consumers in a meeting this week in Malaysia as it looks to beef up green standards that already include commitments to preserve rainforests and wildlife.
The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), whose members include buyers and NGOs, wants to discuss standards on greenhouse gas savings that palm oil should achieve before the Copenhagen climate change talks in December.
But with European firms reluctant to take up pricier palm oil certified under RSPO and a longstanding tussle between environment groups and the palm oil industry over its green credentials, the meeting may fall apart, observers say.
Here are some questions and answers on the issues that will be raised during the RSPO meeting, the seventh since 2001:
WHAT'S THE ISSUE WITH CO2 EMISSIONS?
Palm oil producers have been at loggerheads with green groups over how the tropical oil's impact on the environment should be calculated as they try to counter criticism that the industry fuels climate change.
Planters in top producers Indonesia and Malaysia say that oil palm estates can act as a carbon sink and that a major CO2 saving can come from capturing methane, a powerful greenhouse gas emitted during processing.
Environmentalists say any expansion of plantations should be stopped as chopping down and burning rainforests produces the most emissions in the life cycle of oil palm estates.
Both groups agree that expanding into carbon-rich peatland forests found mostly in Indonesia are a no-go, a rare consensus that may help them to hammer out an agreement for an industry standard on palm oil's greenhouse gas savings.
HOW ABOUT MAKING GOVERNMENTS ACCOUNTABLE?
The Malaysian and Indonesian governments are not a part of the RSPO and their own development policies for the industry make it difficult for planters to become eco-friendly.
For instance, Indonesia ended a freeze on new permits for developing estates on peatlands early this year as it seeks to expand the industry, a key revenue earner.
Planters who are RSPO members have pledged to stay away from peatlands and other natural forests but say they will lose valuable expansion opportunities to other companies who do not belong to the RSPO.
WHO WILL BUY PRICEY GREEN PALM OIL?
Price-conscious shoppers in Europe, a key palm oil consumer, have found it difficult to stomach higher-priced palm oil that has been certified under RSPO as the global economy takes its time to recover.
Much of the extra cost comes in hiring auditors to ensure palm oil is produced without harming wildlife and oppressing local communities as well as building new storage tanks and processors to "green" the supply chain.
Producers say their efforts have been wasted as European supermarkets are just passing the costs to the consumers without sharing the burden and warn that they might turn their backs on the RSPO.
Some European buyers have tried offering discounts although they say that food demand has been weaker across the board due to the economic crisis.
But many European retailers and manufacturers have yet to take up green palm oil in a big way, a scorecard by WWF has shown.
