Indonesia has gone full throttle in opposing a recent European Union proposal to cap palm oil-based biofuels immediately, despite the country’s progress in curbing deforestation and forest fires.

During a press briefing on Wednesday that was also attended by EU Ambassador to Indonesia Vincent Guérend, Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution called the plan “unfair and discriminative” because palm oil was singled out as the only biofuel feedstock that would be barred from a list of alternatives, including soybean and sugar.

“There is no point in history when a commodity was restricted while other similar commodities were allowed. This is protectionism supported by flawed scientific data,” Darmin said.

“What Europe is doing to us is discrimination and a black campaign against palm oil.”

The EU plans to phase out crude palm oil from the sources of biofuels by 2030. The European Commission proposed a law containing criteria for determining crops that are deemed “harmful” to the environment that resulted in palm oil-based fuels being the only commodity dropped from the EU list of renewable energy.

If the law is approved by the European Parliament, the use of palm oil-based biofuels will be capped at 2019 levels until 2023 and reduced to zero by 2030.

The restriction means, among other things, the application of a certification system for the product, according to an EU official with knowledge of the matter.

The EU accounted for around 15 percent of Indonesia’s 2018 palm oils exports, valued at around US$19 billion, according to Indonesian Palm Oil Association data.

Abundant evidence of deforestation that has surrounded the palm oil industry in producing countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia has prompted the EU to begin efforts to phase out the commodity in the past few years.

Darmin said the government had tried to show the EU data on declining deforestation in Indonesia, which was the reason for Norway’s recent decision to agree on their first payment for Indonesia under the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) scheme.

“More than that, we also showed maps of Indonesia from 1900 to 2010. We showed that people had been planting oil palm on land where forest had already been cleared, rather than clearing up primary forest for new palm oil plantations,” Darmin said.

But he said none of the evidence was considered by the EU, despite the bloc’s commitment to sustainable environment.

According to data from the Environment and Forestry Ministry, the country saw a decline in deforestation in 2017, with a loss of only 480,000 hectares of forest — relatively low compared to previous years. This decrease is believed to have resulted in a reduction in Indonesia’s carbon emissions by 4.8 million tons.

Norway, a non-EU country, pledged almost a decade ago that it would disburse $1 billion for Indonesia if it could reduce deforestation and carbon emissions under the REDD+ scheme.

A similar fund, called the Amazon Fund, has been implemented in Brazil to curb deforestation in the Amazon rainforest.

In a recent interview with The Jakarta Post, Norway Ambassador Vegard Kaale said both countries eventually reached the agreement because the European nation saw Indonesia’s commitment in curbing deforestation through “the establishment of solid and necessary institutions and reforms”.

One of the reforms referred to by the ambassador was a moratorium on new palm oil plantations issued by President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo last September. Through a presidential instruction, the President instructed ministers and regional administrations to halt the issuance of new permits for palm oil plantations, as well as review the existing permits .

“It was [also] not until now that Indonesia confirmed that carbon emissions and deforestation had declined,” Kaale said.

Coordinating Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said Jakarta would not hesitate to take strong action against the EU’s “discriminative actions”.

He mentioned a number of potential economic collaborations between Indonesia and EU member states, including the purchase of around 2,500 airplanes for the country’s growing aviation sector, valued at around $40 billion. One of the potential partners in the sector is France-based aircraft manufacturer Airbus.

“However, we also have other options [besides boycotting Europe-based companies],” Luhut said.

The government also plans to bring the dispute to the World Trade Organization.

Guérend dismissed the government’s criticism that the bloc was discriminating against palm oil. “[The criteria in the proposed EU law] are considered the best scientific criteria to distinguish which plantations or crops are the biggest drivers of deforestation.” “We encourage Indonesia to push reform for better sustainability.” He added that the law could be revised should the EU later find the Indonesian palm oil industry to have implemented reforms.

World Resources Institute Indonesia sustainable commodity and business manager Andika Putraditama said the EU’s decision to phase out palm oil from biofuel would harm the whole palm oil industry, including sustainable companies.

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