On Dec. 20, the French National Assembly passed its Finance Bill. This would ordinarily be unremarkable and have little bearing on Indonesia. 

However, the bill included a provision to remove a renewables subsidy applied to vegetable oils. But it was only removed from palm oil. 

The subsidy’s removal of will increase the cost of palm oil for biofuels in France by around 30 to 40 percent, according to the amendment’s author, Bruno Millienne.

The Finance Bill will then be presented to France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who will sign the bill into law. The price change is scheduled to happen from Jan. 1, 2020 — nearly 12 months from now. Why have France’s lawmakers done this?

First, the circumstances are right. The recent “yellow vest” movement in France has brought many parts of...

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