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RI slams EU for using old data as basis for regulation
The government has further criticized the European Union’s plan to restrict palm oil-based biofuels after the bloc said the constraint was based on data from 2015
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span>The government has further criticized the European Union’s plan to restrict palm oil-based biofuels after the bloc said the constraint was based on data from 2015.
The EU’s representative office in Jakarta explained that the regulation, which was issued by the European Commission on March 13, was based on the best available scientific data from 2008 to 2015, which showed that palm oil was associated with the highest level of deforestation, with 45 percent of the expansion of oil palm plantations taking place in high carbon stock areas.
Ruandha Agung Sugardiman, the Environment and Forestry Ministry’s director general of climate change control, said the EU had made a risky move by basing such a pivotal decision on “outdated” data.
“How could they use outdated data when we already have data from 2016 to 2018? The data they use can’t represent the current condition of palm oil in Indonesia,” Ruandha told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Relations between Jakarta and Brussels have suffered since last week’s issuance of the EU Commission’s regulation that is set to result in palm oil as the only commodity that to be capped over concerns of deforestation.
“Indeed, the productivity factor of palm oil is higher than that of other crops, but the factor used in the formula to determine [indirect land use change (ILUC)] is calculated based on the energy-content-of-traded-products of different annual crops such as soy, rapeseed and sunflower compared to palm oil,” the representative office said.
The reference period starts in 2008, because that year is the cut-off date contained in the EU sustainability criteria for biofuels, and 2015 provides the latest available consistent data.
The regulation allows soybean, sugarcane, sunflower and other types of vegetable oils, despite other reports showing that they also cause deforestation.
In a report issued by the EU Commission in 2013, entitled “The Impact of EU Consumption on Deforestation”, the commission suggests that food crops contributed directly or indirectly to deforestation, including soybeans (19 percent), maize (11 percent) and palm oil (8 percent).
Ruandha said the EU should not only use that data for their consideration but also had to take into account efforts of the Indonesian government to create a sustainable palm oil industry.
He noted that a presidential instruction for a two-year moratorium on the issuance of new permits to clear rainforests and peatland had been issued in May 2011.
In September 2018, President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has also imposed a moratorium on oil palm plantations by signing Presidential Instruction No. 8/2018.
“They should take this into account too, because it’s clear that Indonesia has shown effort to palm oil sustainability,” he said.
Ruandha said the Environment and Forestry Ministry would have a meeting next Tuesday with the Geospatial Information Agency (BIG) to evaluate, check and asses every of the EU’s claims regarding oil palm plantations in Indonesia.
The bloc said it was open for a frank discussion and dialogue with Indonesia and other stakeholders on this issue.
It also expects the establishment of a joint working group between the EU and relevant ASEAN member states to address issues relating to palm oil to serve as another venue for discussions.
“This delegated European Commission regulation is neither the beginning nor the end of a policy process, it is just one more step on a long and collective journey towards sustainable development and carbon neutrality,” said Vincent Guérend, the EU ambassador to Indonesia.
The EU Commission will reassess the data and methodology for the regulation in 2021 and plans to carry out a revision in 2023.
World Resources Institute Indonesia sustainable commodity and business manager Andika Putraditama said while Indonesia should not flaunt its meager efforts to curb deforestation, the EU should take into account at least data from 2017 as the basis of the regulation.
“It should not only consider deforestation but also [...] the government’s effort to improve the sustainability of palm oil,” he said.
