Last week, The Jakarta Post published an opinion piece by trade and sustainability consultant and Palm Oil Monitor author, Khalil Hegarty. For months the tumultuous, drawn out battle between the world’s top palm oil producing countries, smallholders and the European Union, regarding a ban on palm oil usage for biofuels was heavily covered and assessed by NGOs, European media, and anti-palm oil forces.
As it stands, the European Commission will finalize a methodology in 2019 to determine which biofuels are considered “high-risk.”
“Any “high-risk” biofuels — imported or European — will have their use frozen at 2019 levels, and the commission will then recommend a phase-out strategy for high-risk biofuels, commencing in 2024 and ending in 2030. But “high risk” is yet to be determined. The ‘high carbon stock’ criteria may be carried over from the original RED. Schemes such as RSPO RED and ISCC already comply if that is the case.
ILUC is the true wildcard here. The ILUC debate has been going on for nearly a decade. The concept has been criticized repeatedly for its lack of a robust methodology.”
The debate over the scientific dependency of indirect land-use change (ILUC) and high carbon stock (HCS) will be underway soon, as the anti-palm forces band together once more in a large scheme threat to the EU market and trade relations.
Read the full piece at The Jakarta Post.