Fossil fuel giant Royal Dutch Shell is facing legal action from environmental and human rights organisations if it fails to align its growth plans with global climate goals aimed at averting catastrophic global warming.

The seven organisations will hand over a court summons on 5 April if Shell fails to change its business model to align with the Paris Agreement and set out a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 – in what would be the first case of its kind.

ActionAid Netherlands, Greenpeace Netherlands, Fossielvrij NL, part of the 350 network, Both ENDS, Wadden Sea Forum and Youth Environment Active (JMA) are joining Friends of the Earth Netherlands in delivering these demands to the company.

Destructive

Shell is the largest polluter based in the Netherlands and one of just 100 fossil fuel producers responsible for 71% of all harmful industrial greenhouse gas emissions since 1988.

The groups say in a letter to the company they will handover a court summons if Shell fails to meet their requests. More than 13,000 Dutch citizens have signed up to become co-claimants in the potential legal case. Hundreds of co-claimants will join the seven organisations as they hand over the court summons at Shell’s headquarters in The Hague on 5 April.

Shell spends billions on oil and gas exploration each year, with current plans to invest just 5% ($1-2 billion) of its budget in sustainable energy and 95 percent ($25-30 billion) in exploiting fossil fuels. Shell’s destructive plans are simply incompatible with the goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C of warming set out by the Paris Agreement.

Maria van der Heide, head of policy and campaigns at global justice organisation ActionAid Netherlands, says: “From severe droughts in Africa to extreme flooding in Asia, millions of people we work with are seeing their lives and livelihoods torn apart by climate change. Shell’s refusal to kick its fossil fuel addiction, is sentencing them and many more to further devastation. We’re joining this case because we want to ensure that Shell finally puts humanity’s future above its bottom line.”

Joris Thijssen, director of Greenpeace Netherlands, said: “For decades, Shell has chosen to make big profits at the expense of the climate. Shell is deliberately obstructing the energy revolution that is so badly needed to prevent catastrophic climate change. We need to make sure that Shell takes responsibility for its actions and changes its destructive business model.”

Biggest threat

Danielle Hirsch, director of environmental group Both ENDS, said: “For Both ENDS it’s a logical step to become a co-plaintiff, because companies like Shell keep the world dependent on fossil fuels. In the meantime, millions of people in world are suffering from the extraction and use of fossil fuels. The fossil fuel industry – and Shell in particular – is not taking their responsibility.”

Liset Meddens, director of Fossielvrij Netherlands, which is part of the 350 network, said: “This court case offers a historic opportunity to break the power of climate damaging companies such as Shell, and to stop their damaging activities. It is unacceptable that multinationals like Shell are still slowing down the transition from fossils to renewable, sustainable energy. We are very proud of the fact that we are taking Shell to court together with 13,000 Dutch citizens and Friends of the Earth Netherlands.”

Sibel Kurt, chair of the youth organisation Jongeren Milieu Actief, said: “In a time where the strongest shoulders should bear the heaviest burden, Shell continues to act in way that negatively impacts our planet and our future. It is time we stand up together, raise our voice and make sure that Shell’s activities are supporting a sustainable future.”

Lutz Jacobi, director Wadden Sea Forum, says: “Climate change is the biggest threat for the Wadden Sea, the Netherland’s only World Heritage Site. Shell is one of the 100 fossil fuel producers who together are responsible for 71% of the emission of greenhouse gases worldwide. Shell can really make a difference for the climate, and also for the Wadden Sea. It is only by working together we can make sure to stop climate change. That’s why we are joining the law suit.”

This article

This article is based on a press release from Friends of the Earth, Netherlands. 

Sweden’s shipping sector is preparing to end the use of fossil fuels domestically by 2045, in line with national climate goals.

The Swedish Shipowners’ Association is developing a roadmap to net zero greenhouse gas emissions in partnership with Fossil-free Sweden, a government initiative. It follows similar plans for nine industries, to implement a law passed in 2017.

With the right incentives, the shipping industry can radically improve efficiency and switch to low carbon biofuels or electricity, leaders of the two organisations wrote in an opinion article for financial newspaper Dagens Industri.

Ambitious players

A national target to cut emissions from domestic transport 70% by 2030, on the way to net zero in 2045, is “challenging but not impossible”, wrote Rikard Engström and Svante Axelsson.

Developing and installing low carbon equipment costs more: an extra 5 billion Swedish kroner ($500 million) on the estimated SEK 25 billion value of 50 vessels on order by Swedish companies, according to the industry group. They called on government to fund innovation and tweak the tax system to favour low carbon technology and practices.

It is worth it to gain a competitive advantage, the article argued, and “show the way” for international shipping. Last year countries at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) agreed to halve the sector’s global carbon footprint by mid-century.

Scandinavian shippers are among the more ambitious players in the industry.

Global industry

Norway launched the first all-electric ferry in 2015, tapping into the country’s bountiful hydropower resources.

Danish giant Maersk made waves in December by declaring its intention to go carbon neutral by 2050. Due to the long lifespan of vessels, that means making zero-carbon ships commercially viable by 2030, the company explained.

Efficiency improvements alone will not be enough, said chief operating officer Søren Toft at the time: “The only possible way to achieve the so-much-needed decarbonisation in our industry is by fully transforming to new carbon neutral fuels and supply chains.”

Other elements of the global industry are less ready to embrace the challenge. Major commodities exporters like Brazil and Saudi Arabia have resisted specific carbon-cutting measures at the IMO, citing concerns about the impact on trade and development.

This Article

This Article first appeared on Climate Home News.

Dale Vince and Guy Singh-Watson – two of Britain’s greenest entrepreneurs – have come together to appeal for businesses to refocus on people and the planet over profit. 

Vince, who is the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, and Singh-Watson, who established the organic veg box company Riverford, have called for different measures of success, and said the short-term pursuit of profit damages both people and the environment. 

It comes in a week of yet another reminder of how human activity is harming the environment with news that more than 40 per cent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, primarily due to agricultural intensification.

Motivates

On a global policy level, there is little evidence that world leaders are truly committed to the scale of change needed. David Attenborough told the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that humans are wrecking the planet, but the leaders he addressed arrived on 1,500 private jets and some are already planning how to capitalise on the impacts of climate change.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: “Capitalism has become a force of evil in the world and I don’t think it originated in that way and it doesn’t need to be that way.

“The pursuit of profit has taken priority over people, over the environment, over everything.

“I’m not motivated by money. I want to change the world. Everything that motivates me is about creating change because I can see so much scope for that – so much change that we need to bring so that we all live more sustainably.”

Veg boxes

Guy Singh-Watson, Riverford founder and organic farmer, said: “The quest for short-term profits is what’s wrong. For some reason we don’t measure success in the things that really matter so we measure it with money.

“It should be measured in what you can do – what you can do for other people, what you can do for the environment. That’s the shift we need.”

Riverford is the first veg box company in the world to have all their operations powered by 100 per cent green electricity, and saves 665 tonnes of CO2 annually by being supplied by Ecotricity –the equivalent weight of 133,000 veg boxes.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Riverford.

Dale Vince and Guy Singh-Watson – two of Britain’s greenest entrepreneurs – have come together to appeal for businesses to refocus on people and the planet over profit. 

Vince, who is the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, and Singh-Watson, who established the organic veg box company Riverford, have called for different measures of success, and said the short-term pursuit of profit damages both people and the environment. 

It comes in a week of yet another reminder of how human activity is harming the environment with news that more than 40 per cent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, primarily due to agricultural intensification.

Motivates

On a global policy level, there is little evidence that world leaders are truly committed to the scale of change needed. David Attenborough told the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that humans are wrecking the planet, but the leaders he addressed arrived on 1,500 private jets and some are already planning how to capitalise on the impacts of climate change.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: “Capitalism has become a force of evil in the world and I don’t think it originated in that way and it doesn’t need to be that way.

“The pursuit of profit has taken priority over people, over the environment, over everything.

“I’m not motivated by money. I want to change the world. Everything that motivates me is about creating change because I can see so much scope for that – so much change that we need to bring so that we all live more sustainably.”

Veg boxes

Guy Singh-Watson, Riverford founder and organic farmer, said: “The quest for short-term profits is what’s wrong. For some reason we don’t measure success in the things that really matter so we measure it with money.

“It should be measured in what you can do – what you can do for other people, what you can do for the environment. That’s the shift we need.”

Riverford is the first veg box company in the world to have all their operations powered by 100 per cent green electricity, and saves 665 tonnes of CO2 annually by being supplied by Ecotricity –the equivalent weight of 133,000 veg boxes.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Riverford.

Dale Vince and Guy Singh-Watson – two of Britain’s greenest entrepreneurs – have come together to appeal for businesses to refocus on people and the planet over profit. 

Vince, who is the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, and Singh-Watson, who established the organic veg box company Riverford, have called for different measures of success, and said the short-term pursuit of profit damages both people and the environment. 

It comes in a week of yet another reminder of how human activity is harming the environment with news that more than 40 per cent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, primarily due to agricultural intensification.

Motivates

On a global policy level, there is little evidence that world leaders are truly committed to the scale of change needed. David Attenborough told the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that humans are wrecking the planet, but the leaders he addressed arrived on 1,500 private jets and some are already planning how to capitalise on the impacts of climate change.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: “Capitalism has become a force of evil in the world and I don’t think it originated in that way and it doesn’t need to be that way.

“The pursuit of profit has taken priority over people, over the environment, over everything.

“I’m not motivated by money. I want to change the world. Everything that motivates me is about creating change because I can see so much scope for that – so much change that we need to bring so that we all live more sustainably.”

Veg boxes

Guy Singh-Watson, Riverford founder and organic farmer, said: “The quest for short-term profits is what’s wrong. For some reason we don’t measure success in the things that really matter so we measure it with money.

“It should be measured in what you can do – what you can do for other people, what you can do for the environment. That’s the shift we need.”

Riverford is the first veg box company in the world to have all their operations powered by 100 per cent green electricity, and saves 665 tonnes of CO2 annually by being supplied by Ecotricity –the equivalent weight of 133,000 veg boxes.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Riverford.

Dale Vince and Guy Singh-Watson – two of Britain’s greenest entrepreneurs – have come together to appeal for businesses to refocus on people and the planet over profit. 

Vince, who is the founder of green energy company Ecotricity, and Singh-Watson, who established the organic veg box company Riverford, have called for different measures of success, and said the short-term pursuit of profit damages both people and the environment. 

It comes in a week of yet another reminder of how human activity is harming the environment with news that more than 40 per cent of insect species are declining and a third are endangered, primarily due to agricultural intensification.

Motivates

On a global policy level, there is little evidence that world leaders are truly committed to the scale of change needed. David Attenborough told the recent World Economic Forum in Davos that humans are wrecking the planet, but the leaders he addressed arrived on 1,500 private jets and some are already planning how to capitalise on the impacts of climate change.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder, said: “Capitalism has become a force of evil in the world and I don’t think it originated in that way and it doesn’t need to be that way.

“The pursuit of profit has taken priority over people, over the environment, over everything.

“I’m not motivated by money. I want to change the world. Everything that motivates me is about creating change because I can see so much scope for that – so much change that we need to bring so that we all live more sustainably.”

Veg boxes

Guy Singh-Watson, Riverford founder and organic farmer, said: “The quest for short-term profits is what’s wrong. For some reason we don’t measure success in the things that really matter so we measure it with money.

“It should be measured in what you can do – what you can do for other people, what you can do for the environment. That’s the shift we need.”

Riverford is the first veg box company in the world to have all their operations powered by 100 per cent green electricity, and saves 665 tonnes of CO2 annually by being supplied by Ecotricity –the equivalent weight of 133,000 veg boxes.

This Author

Brendan Montague is editor of The Ecologist. This story is based on a press release from Riverford.

The end is nigh for fracking in the UK, not that it ever particularly got started.

Regulators at the government’s Department of Business, Energy, Innovation and Skills (BEIS) recently denied fracking pioneer Cuadrilla’s request to raise earthquake limits.

This is a hammer blow to the company’s prospects of profitably extracting shale gas at their Preston New Road (PNR) site in Lancashire.

There is little more that Cuadrilla could do to portray itself as the arch-villain of the climate movement as they demand the Government allow them to induce more earthquakes at their site between Blackpool and Preston. All to make a quick profit.

Their demand comes after fracking just 5% of the well at PNR since beginning horizontal drilling on 15 October 2018. They have induced 57 earth tremors between then an February 2019.

BEIS state that while they support fracking, they have set existing regulations in consultation with the industry.

You can’t help but expect that even this callous Tory government have woken up to the deep unpopularity of fracking. By limiting Cuadrilla’s expansion at this stage, time is being run down until a Labour government ban it all together. It may even come with a new Tory leader in an attempt to appear ‘green’.

No support

Polling in a BEIS report in December 2018 showed that only 13 percent of the public support fracking in the UK. A peak of now 35 percent oppose.

The gap has only widened since 2014. There is nothing about fracking that cultivates popular support. The more the public learn about fracking, the more they oppose it.

The industry often argues for its existence under the guise of energy independence from big, bad, scary Russia. In reality, less than one percent of the UK’s gas comes from Russia.

The truth is that there is no under-supply of gas in Europe. The only demand for a new gas industry comes from investors and fossil capitalists who stand to make money from exacerbating climate breakdown.

Why would the public support a disruptive mode of extraction that just unnecessarily pumps unwanted gas into the energy supply?

Every proposed fracking site radicalises a new wave of organisers willing to put everything on the line to stop the industry imposing itself on their community.

In Lancashire, local nanas went from dipping their toes in activism by objecting to Cuadrilla’s plans to leading a movement and blockading the site themselves.

Where the fracking industry goes, local residents will be confronted by its terrible realities for climate, geologies, house prices and beyond.

Local struggles

These local communities get highly organised quickly.

They’re also supported by national networks like Reclaim the Power (RTP) and Friends of the Earth (FOE). As locals bring the energy and drive to defend their land from fracking, the networks have brought the experience, skills and capacity to amplify local struggles and throw national weight behind local struggles against a government-backed industry.

As mass demos and audacious blockades continue to the chorus of “until we win!”, you can only believe that these activists are committed to the fight until the bitter end.

Indeed, their organising has brought about the end for fracking. By using every trick in the book to frustrate Cuadrilla’s attempt to kick-start fracking in Lancashire, they have played a massive part in the industry’s failure.

Had they not put up a fight over many years, the government would have found it easy to relax regulations and wave through a dangerous new industry. Instead, there just isn’t the mood for that level of disregard for people and planet.

While UK fracking knocks at death’s door, we must remember that the struggle to kill it off is not over. Later in February, Reclaim the Power are organising “two days of resistance and direct action to disrupt the fracking supply chain and new gas infrastructure”.

The fracking industry needs kicking while they’re down. As the anti-fracking movement puts the nail in fracking’s coffin, there’s no better time to join the movement. Fracking was never going to succeed in the UK, but its down to us to make sure that INEOS, Third Energy and their fellow travellers meet the same fate as Cuadrilla.

This author

Chris Saltmarsh is co-director of climate change campaigns at People & Planet and member of Reclaim the Power in Oxford. He tweets at @chris_saltmarsh.

Ireland’s grid operator is lobbying Brussels to fast track funding to connect the country to the rest of Europe, citing concerns about becoming isolated after Brexit, its boss told Climate Home News.

Ireland relies heavily on British energy. It shares its electricity market with Northern Ireland, with just two power links to the mainland, and receives most of its oil and gas imports from the UK.

While an abrupt, no-deal Brexit on 29 March is unlikely to stop those supplies, it could lead to disruptions if Europe and Britain’s rules diverge in future, energy industry representatives are warning.

Rising supply

With these risks in mind, state-owned EirGrid is urging the European Commission to approve funding for a planned €930m electricity link with France before the commission’s term ends late this year, according to chief executive Mark Foley.

“It’s a project of common interest and a project of enormous strategic importance to an island nation which, in a post-Brexit situation, is not connected to Europe,” Foley said on the sidelines of a conference at Dublin City University last week. “We’d like to achieve grant aid in formal terms in the lifetime of the current EU commission.”

The commission has already approved funding for studies of the Celtic Interconnector, which is deemed a cross-border project of common interest that can bolster the EU-wide energy market. If additional funding is secured, EirGrid and its French counterpart, RTE, hope to begin trading power in 2026, Foley added.

Plans for the link between southern Ireland and northwest France predate Brexit by about five years, and proponents say it will be crucial to both countries regardless of the UK’s future relationship with the EU.

For Ireland, new interconnectors are needed to balance the rising supply of renewable power. This way producers can export their electricity when the weather is strong and supply exceeds demand, and import when it wanes.

Disputes

Renewables – mostly wind, with some hydro and solar – accounted for about one-third of the entire island’s power generation in 2018, according to EirGrid. The republic aims to reach 40% by 2020, and EirGrid expects to have to double the island’s capacity of around 5,000 megawatts to reach its 2030 goal.

“As we take it to the next level, if we don’t have the safety relief valve to export wind to other jurisdictions, the economic case for building renewables on the part of private developers won’t be there… they won’t get bank financing,” Foley said.

That’s why EirGrid is also pursuing a planned second power connection with Northern Ireland and considering another to mainland UK – on the assumption that Brexit will not split the island’s single power market, he added.

Ireland and Northern Ireland further integrated their market last October, allowing traders to buy and sell as quickly as within the day. London, Dublin and Brussels have all promised to keep the market intact after Brexit.

That said, there are concerns that British and Irish market rules will gradually diverge, and uncertainties about how disputes between traders would be resolved if the UK is not under the European Court of Justice’s jurisdiction – adding to Ireland’s need for links beyond Britain.

This Article

This Article first appeared on Climate Home News.

Many people have noticed the buzz about something known as the clean label movement. Consumable products and those in the beauty sector are particularly likely to have the clean label designation. But, what exactly is a clean product?

Some variations in the definition exist, but it generally means an item free from unnecessary ingredients and made of familiar components people can pronounce. So, clean products appeal to individuals who want to be more aware of what they put into or on their bodies. Often, sustainability is part of clean products, too.

The goal is to provide a greater level of transparency, thereby empowering people to make more informed choices about what they buy and which companies they support. Besides benefitting consumers, clean products can be advantageous to businesses and foster their growth.

Build trust

Research indicates that people are fed up with brands that aren’t transparent about what they offer. If individuals don’t view brands as trustworthy, they’re likely to look elsewhere to find a brand that makes them feel more confident.

A 2016 Label Insights study showed 94 percent of respondents were likely to be loyal to brands that provided complete transparency. Also, the survey indicated there’s no need for manufacturers to go to extreme lengths to highlight that products are healthy. That’s because more than half of those polled said they use personal determinations to decide what’s healthy and what isn’t.

When consumers feel companies are trustworthy, they’re arguably more likely than not to support those brands. After all, if entities aren’t straightforward about which ingredients they use, it’s easy for people to wonder what else they might be concealing.

Moreover, a lack of trust can have severe consequences. An investigation from Sprout Social that took a close look at the effects of transparency indicated that 86 percent of people would take their business to competitors if they perceived brands to lack transparency.

Conversely, though, the presence of transparency builds a level of trust that makes people more forgiving after company mistakes occur. More specifically, the Sprout Social study showed when a company has a history of transparency, 85 percent of people are more likely than not to give them second chances.

Boost sales

Companies do a variety of things to increases their profits. Some run creative social media campaigns while others alter their packaging to make it more appealing and eye-catching in a crowded supermarket aisle where various things compete for shoppers attention. Those efforts can help, but it’s also becoming increasingly important to make it simple for people to check ingredients.

That’s because statistics indicate three-fourths of people say that they read nutritional and ingredient labels found on food and think it’s important to see mostly recognizable ingredients when they survey the information. Author Michael Pollan urged people to be more conscious of what they consume over a decade ago. He recommended that foods contain five or fewer ingredients, all of them pronounceable.

Also, research from Nielsen shows an upward trend in the market share of clean label products. It’s not just from a niche segment of consumers, either. Nielsen discovered more than half of shopping trips contain clean goods, and certain consumer segments gravitate towards those items at above-average rates. Companies could cater to the desire to read labels by simplifying the packaging designs and using callouts like “No artificial flavors or colors.”

Outside of clean products people eat, Sephora is making it even easier for people to buy products free from unwanted ingredients. It launched a “Clean at Sephora” section in 2018 that features all the clean beauty products in one area of stores or on the website. Now, people can shop at Sephora and know that they can get clean products there. As such, Sephora’s sales should go up as it caters to an identified need.

In addition to making overall sales rise, companies that offer clean products may find that their profits improve because people will pay a premium for natural ingredients. Research from Lycored indicated 88 percent of people would spend more on items with natural ingredients. And, when presented with a hypothetical about naturally flavored milk, participants said they’d pay 47 percent more for it.

Embrace innovation

Although consumers like consistency for some aspects of products, such as quality and price, they also appreciate new offerings that keep pace with societal changes. When enterprises don’t innovate, they could become stagnant and get swallowed up by competitors.

In recent years, various companies made changes to support the public’s interest in clean products. Dunkin’ Donuts, Smoothie King and Panera Bread are some examples of well-known brands that changed their ways of doing things to get rid of artificial ingredients.

DuPont could soon help those brands and many others figure out how to successfully innovate in ways that align with the desire for clean products without being prohibitively cost-intensive. It will have a clean label hub in Denmark, and one of the priorities of the people who work in that facility will be to devise new clean texturants — the ingredients that make food feel pleasant in the mouth— to replace the artificial ones frequently used now.

This kind of innovation promotes growth in several ways. As a start, it gives the perception that brands listen to what people want and respond to trends. When individuals believe brands care about what they want, they could be especially likely to support them. Plus, innovation allows companies to potentially cut manufacturing costs or reduce inefficient processes, which could provide more resources to build the enterprises.

The research showcased here, and numerous other conclusions, show that the clean label movement is here to stay and in demand. When companies recognize that and respond accordingly, they naturally innovate, which helps them grow as reputable entities and brands that match customers preferences and purchasing habits.

This Author

Emily Folk is a conservation and sustainability writer and the editor of Conservation Folks.

The European Commission will meet on controversial rules this week to limit the use of biofuel crops linked to deforestation – amid backlash from the world’s two largest palm producers.

The new rules will define which fuels can be counted toward EU renewable energy targets. Biofuels that indirectly lead to changes in land use and higher greenhouse gas emissions will be excluded by 2023.

EU commissioners will discuss the legally-binding act in a meeting on Wednesday, commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said. It comes a few days after the 1 February due date. If it is adopted, the European Parliament and member countries will have two months to give any objections before it’s finalised.

Energy goals

If the commission chooses tough criteria could significantly limit one of Indonesia’s and Malaysia’s biggest exports – palm oil.

The Indonesian and Malaysian governments and industries have long criticised the EU’s push to tighten its biofuels criteria.

“The proposed ban is clearly an act of discrimination,” Malaysian foreign affairs minister Saifuddin Abdullah said in a statement in January. “Malaysia is committed to producing sustainable palm oil … every drop of palm oil produced in Malaysia will be certified sustainable by 2020.”

Jakarta, meanwhile, plans to lodge a complaint with the WTO on the grounds that the EU directive will unfairly target palm oil in favour of European commodities like rapeseed oil, Reuters reported last week. On top of that, the government is reviewing its relations with the EU and urging southeast Asian neighbours to hold off on any plans to upgrade their relationship with the bloc, it said.

Brussels countered that the rules will comply with its WTO obligations. “The commission will make sure that any necessary implementing rules are fair, balanced and based on solid scientific evidence to ensure that the achievement of the EU’s renewable energy goals goes hand in hand with the fair and rules-based international trade regime that we so strongly defend,” Itkonen said.

Biodiesel

The EU has also stressed that it does not intend phase out palm oil-based biofuels by 2030 entirely. Instead, palm oil and other crops will have to pass new “objective and non-discriminatory” criteria in order to qualify as low-carbon and renewable sources of energy, the EU’s ambassador to Indonesia, Vincent Guérend, wrote in a letter to the Jakarta Post in November.

“The Union remains a large, open market for palm oil,” Guérend wrote. “If it failed to pass these criteria, palm oil imports would still be possible under current condition, except European member states could not count it as ‘renewable energy’ anymore.”

The EU is working with the Indonesian government to see how its palm oil can comply with the coming rules, with about four years to prepare, he added.

The extent to which food-based biofuels should count as renewable energy was one of the most contentious issues in the EU’s negotiation for the 2021-2030 policy.

Environmentalists argue biodiesel made from palm oil is the worst type of biofuel, followed by soy. According to the NGO Transport & Environment (T&E), biodiesel releases three times the greenhouse gas emissions of fossil fuel diesel, once land use is taken into account.

Deforestation

Their concern now is that some palm oil production will count as lower-risk crops that can still be imported for fuel, said Nico Muzi from T&E.

“That for us is the loophole, the wide-open door, for green-washed palm oil. All the fight will be around that – how big that loophole will be.”

However, not all palm oil production causes deforestation, and sustainability rules need to recognise the differences from country to country, said Gernot Klepper, a senior researcher at Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy.

There is still extensive tree loss and illegal cutting in Indonesia, but much less now in Malaysia. Colombia’s palm oil, instead, is produced in plains rather than forests.

Rules that allow producers to qualify their crops as the lower-risk feedstock can incentivise them to become more sustainable, he said. 

Restricting imports

On the other hand, banning palm oil outright – which the Commission does not intend to do – would hurt more sustainable producers as well.

Norway and France have moved ahead of Brussels to clamp down on deforestation.

Norway committed in 2016 to making sure the supply chain in its public procurement is deforestation-free and included the plan in its budget last autumn. Malaysia quickly warned it would affect its trade relations with the European Free Trade Association.

France announced in November that it will stop imports of palm oil, soy, beef and other products linked to deforestation and unsustainable agriculture by 2030.

Malaysia again responded, with prime minister Mahathir Mohamad telling president Emmanuel Macron that the government would consider restricting imports of French products, Reuters reported.

This Article

This Article first appeared on Climate Home News.