EXPLAINER: The EU Has Banned Palm Oil
Update September 22, 2022. EU to Discontinue Soyabean Oil and Palm Oil as Biodiesel Feedstock from 2023
On 14th September, the European Parliament voted to ban the use of both soyabean oil and palm oil as feedstocks for biodiesel production from 2023. While the initial phase-out date was set for 2030, the decision by lawmakers to bring forward the start date was due to rising environmental concerns, as both crops have been linked to deforestation. This decision has had mixed reactions from various NGOs and industries because the current global food crisis has tightened supplies of alternative oils (sunflower and rapeseed). Mintec
On 14th September, the European Parliament voted to ban the use of both soyabean oil and palm oil as feedstocks for biodiesel production from 2023. While the initial phase-out date was set for 2030, the decision by lawmakers to bring forward the start date was due to rising environmental concerns, as both crops have been linked to deforestation. This decision has had mixed reactions from various NGOs and industries because the current global food crisis has tightened supplies of alternative oils (sunflower and rapeseed). Mintec
Update September 12, 2022. Belgian minister confirms soy and palm products ban
Brussels has confirmed that soy and palm oil products will be banned from biofuels as part of an initiative to eliminate deforestation.
Biofuels International has reported earlier this year that this move was being planned and this was confirmed by the Federal Minister for Environment and Climate Zakia Khattabi.
Khattabi said that following the examples of Denmark, France, and the Netherlands, biofuels made from palm oil will be barred from the transport sector in the country, while soy will be banned as a raw material for transport biofuels from next year.
"These fuels, apart from having little or no advantage over conventional fossil fuels from a climate point of view, lead to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and even human rights violations,” Khattabi said in a statement. Biofuels News
Brussels has confirmed that soy and palm oil products will be banned from biofuels as part of an initiative to eliminate deforestation.
Biofuels International has reported earlier this year that this move was being planned and this was confirmed by the Federal Minister for Environment and Climate Zakia Khattabi.
Khattabi said that following the examples of Denmark, France, and the Netherlands, biofuels made from palm oil will be barred from the transport sector in the country, while soy will be banned as a raw material for transport biofuels from next year.
"These fuels, apart from having little or no advantage over conventional fossil fuels from a climate point of view, lead to deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and even human rights violations,” Khattabi said in a statement. Biofuels News
Update August 03,2022. Yet another EU diplomat denies there is a ban on palm in the EU
The New Straits Times published an opinion from European External Action Service managing director (Asia and the Pacific) Gunnar Wiegand as saying:
"The European Union (EU) has never imposed a ban on palm oil exports from Malaysia, a top EU diplomat clarified on Monday.
In fact, local palm oil exports to the world's largest trading bloc jumped by 55 per cent last year."
In our opinion, the jump in exports to the EU may be considered by traders as the last meal before execution of the ban.
The New Straits Times published an opinion from European External Action Service managing director (Asia and the Pacific) Gunnar Wiegand as saying:
"The European Union (EU) has never imposed a ban on palm oil exports from Malaysia, a top EU diplomat clarified on Monday.
In fact, local palm oil exports to the world's largest trading bloc jumped by 55 per cent last year."
In our opinion, the jump in exports to the EU may be considered by traders as the last meal before execution of the ban.
Update June 08, 2022. EU ban on palm oil in biofuels to take effect in 2023
The European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) has voted to limit crop-based biofuels to no more than half the share of total biofuel use in transport and to phase out palm and soya-based biofuels by 2023, EU Bioenergy reported. Read the report from OFI Magazine
EU Ambassadors to the top palm oil producing countries have argued in local media that the EU has not banned palm oil
EU Ambassador to Malaysia, Michalis Rokas, wrote an opinion in The Sun MY where he argued against Malaysian Minister Zuraida’s statement that the EU has banned palm oil.
“I ought to emphasise that there is no, and there has never been, ban of palm oil based biofuels, or other palm oil products, in the EU. Rather than pointing out to a position issued by the European Parliament in January 2018, which was not retained in the legislative process, we should look at the EU legislation in force. This includes the recast of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED2) and its related Delegated Regulation, which establish renewable energy targets and set criteria to determine the contribution of biofuels to achieve such targets.”
The European Parliament’s environment committee (ENVI) has voted to limit crop-based biofuels to no more than half the share of total biofuel use in transport and to phase out palm and soya-based biofuels by 2023, EU Bioenergy reported. Read the report from OFI Magazine
EU Ambassadors to the top palm oil producing countries have argued in local media that the EU has not banned palm oil
EU Ambassador to Malaysia, Michalis Rokas, wrote an opinion in The Sun MY where he argued against Malaysian Minister Zuraida’s statement that the EU has banned palm oil.
“I ought to emphasise that there is no, and there has never been, ban of palm oil based biofuels, or other palm oil products, in the EU. Rather than pointing out to a position issued by the European Parliament in January 2018, which was not retained in the legislative process, we should look at the EU legislation in force. This includes the recast of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (RED2) and its related Delegated Regulation, which establish renewable energy targets and set criteria to determine the contribution of biofuels to achieve such targets.”
EU Ambassador to Indonesia, Vincent Piket, issued a similar opinion in The Jakarta Post;
“At a time when Indonesia has a ban on the export of palm oil products, it is odd to be reading once again about the supposed European Union ban on palm oil from 2030 onward as The Jakarta Post stated in its editorial on April 29. The EU indeed -- as previously explained in these pages -- has no such ban and will not have one.”
The EU Ambassadors to Indonesia and Malaysia may not be totally clear on why palm oil producing countries perceive EU actions against palm oil biofuels as a ban.
This explainer will set the record straight for Ambassadors Rokas and Piket
As it stands within the EU legislations governing renewable energy, RED ll and its Delegated Act, palm oil as a feedstock for renewable energy has been singled out for a complete phasing out by 2030. This, in effect, is the ban. It may be a delayed action ban but it is still a ban.
Both Ambassadors Rokas and Piket played down this fact by underlining “that EU operators can perfectly import any quantity of palm-oil based biofuels. However, beyond the above-mentioned ceilings, these biofuels do not count against the EU renewable energy targets.”
The Ambassadors should be aware that not counting against EU renewable energy targets means that EU subsidies for biofuels will be removed.
By removing the subsidies for palm-based biofuels, the EU has effectively placed a ban on palm oil as no biofuels producer will use a feedstock that allows no profit.
Ambassador Rokas tried to assuage the sentiment of palm oil producing countries by talking about “high” and “low” ILUC risk biofuels where “palm oil from Malaysia can be counted for the achievement of the EU renewable energy targets as long as they fulfil the requirements for being considered as low ILUC-risk.”
Ambassador Piket was less reassuring for the Indonesian industry as he stated:
“As part of our renewable energy policy, biofuel made of palm oil is classified as high-risk for driving agricultural expansion into high carbon-stock areas, such as forests, wetlands and peatland.”
Neither Ambassadors acknowledged the public statements of the CPOPC which has long argued against the use of ILUC to categorise palm oil as a high risk feedstock for biofuels.
This ILUC theory has been condemned by the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) which exposed the fact that the theory is based on assumptions on what could happen if the EU continued to use palm oil-based biofuels. These assumptions have never been empirically tested nor proven which means the ILUC theory is as good as fiction.
According to the CPOPC, what has been tested and proven is the actual business model and operational practices of palm oil companies that supply palm oil as feedstock for EU biofuels. These are facts which the EU must acknowledge as it looks to categorise biofuels into “high” and “low” ILUC risks.
The EU should move on from the ILUC theory and look at the latest science available on Malaysian palm oil. The recent study by Dr. Maria Vincenza Chiriacó of the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate (CMCC) shows that palm oil, produced by means of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), No Deforestation and avoiding Land Use Change (LUC), achieved the lowest GHG emissions compared to other main vegetable oils.
The current considerations by the EU Commission to allow certain types of palm or soy as low ILUC risk must therefore acknowledge the strong ground actions undertaken by palm oil producing countries since the Globiom report was published.
Within the newly revised standards of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil 2022 scheme are the principles and criteria that meet the findings of the CMCC. Record low deforestation rates in Indonesia have been acknowledged by the UN-REDD which praised Indonesian actions and stated:
“The country is now embarking on an ambitious 2030 agenda by turning Indonesian forests and peatlands into net carbon sinks.”
These are the tested and proven ground actions which the CPOPC wants the EU to acknowledge as they clearly show that palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia are at low risk of deforestation.
There is no doubting the sustainability of palm-based biofuels. Especially when Indonesian and Malaysian producers are double certified by national certification schemes and the EU-recognized International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) scheme.
As the EU looks to repower itself in the face of the energy crisis today, let us hope that the EU's Renewable Energy Directive updates itself with the latest developments in palm oil producing countries and start fresh by removing definitively, the "not-a-ban" on palm oil.
But as of right now, there is definitely a ban on palm oil as headlines like this and this will attest.
Published May, 2022. CSPO Watch
“At a time when Indonesia has a ban on the export of palm oil products, it is odd to be reading once again about the supposed European Union ban on palm oil from 2030 onward as The Jakarta Post stated in its editorial on April 29. The EU indeed -- as previously explained in these pages -- has no such ban and will not have one.”
The EU Ambassadors to Indonesia and Malaysia may not be totally clear on why palm oil producing countries perceive EU actions against palm oil biofuels as a ban.
This explainer will set the record straight for Ambassadors Rokas and Piket
As it stands within the EU legislations governing renewable energy, RED ll and its Delegated Act, palm oil as a feedstock for renewable energy has been singled out for a complete phasing out by 2030. This, in effect, is the ban. It may be a delayed action ban but it is still a ban.
Both Ambassadors Rokas and Piket played down this fact by underlining “that EU operators can perfectly import any quantity of palm-oil based biofuels. However, beyond the above-mentioned ceilings, these biofuels do not count against the EU renewable energy targets.”
The Ambassadors should be aware that not counting against EU renewable energy targets means that EU subsidies for biofuels will be removed.
By removing the subsidies for palm-based biofuels, the EU has effectively placed a ban on palm oil as no biofuels producer will use a feedstock that allows no profit.
Ambassador Rokas tried to assuage the sentiment of palm oil producing countries by talking about “high” and “low” ILUC risk biofuels where “palm oil from Malaysia can be counted for the achievement of the EU renewable energy targets as long as they fulfil the requirements for being considered as low ILUC-risk.”
Ambassador Piket was less reassuring for the Indonesian industry as he stated:
“As part of our renewable energy policy, biofuel made of palm oil is classified as high-risk for driving agricultural expansion into high carbon-stock areas, such as forests, wetlands and peatland.”
Neither Ambassadors acknowledged the public statements of the CPOPC which has long argued against the use of ILUC to categorise palm oil as a high risk feedstock for biofuels.
This ILUC theory has been condemned by the Council of Palm Oil Producing Countries (CPOPC) which exposed the fact that the theory is based on assumptions on what could happen if the EU continued to use palm oil-based biofuels. These assumptions have never been empirically tested nor proven which means the ILUC theory is as good as fiction.
According to the CPOPC, what has been tested and proven is the actual business model and operational practices of palm oil companies that supply palm oil as feedstock for EU biofuels. These are facts which the EU must acknowledge as it looks to categorise biofuels into “high” and “low” ILUC risks.
The EU should move on from the ILUC theory and look at the latest science available on Malaysian palm oil. The recent study by Dr. Maria Vincenza Chiriacó of the Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Climate (CMCC) shows that palm oil, produced by means of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), No Deforestation and avoiding Land Use Change (LUC), achieved the lowest GHG emissions compared to other main vegetable oils.
The current considerations by the EU Commission to allow certain types of palm or soy as low ILUC risk must therefore acknowledge the strong ground actions undertaken by palm oil producing countries since the Globiom report was published.
Within the newly revised standards of the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil 2022 scheme are the principles and criteria that meet the findings of the CMCC. Record low deforestation rates in Indonesia have been acknowledged by the UN-REDD which praised Indonesian actions and stated:
“The country is now embarking on an ambitious 2030 agenda by turning Indonesian forests and peatlands into net carbon sinks.”
These are the tested and proven ground actions which the CPOPC wants the EU to acknowledge as they clearly show that palm oil from Indonesia and Malaysia are at low risk of deforestation.
There is no doubting the sustainability of palm-based biofuels. Especially when Indonesian and Malaysian producers are double certified by national certification schemes and the EU-recognized International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) scheme.
As the EU looks to repower itself in the face of the energy crisis today, let us hope that the EU's Renewable Energy Directive updates itself with the latest developments in palm oil producing countries and start fresh by removing definitively, the "not-a-ban" on palm oil.
But as of right now, there is definitely a ban on palm oil as headlines like this and this will attest.
Published May, 2022. CSPO Watch