https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiesel/ Environmental science and conservation news Sat, 20 Jun 2026 09:10:24 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiesel/ 32 32 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/ https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/#respond 23 May 2025 10:11:48 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299547 - A proposed alternative scenario by the NGO Madani Berkelanjutan calls for boosting yields from existing plantations and promoting community-based biofuel production using diverse feedstocks like used cooking oil and non-palm crops.
- This alternative model avoids deforestation and social conflict, supports rural economies, and could generate a higher net economic benefit of $37.1 billion, compared to $31.36 billion under the business-as-usual scenario.
- Researchers warn the country is nearing its ecological cap for oil palm plantations, urging a shift to intensification and diversification to prevent irreversible environmental harm.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/ https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/#respond 21 May 2025 17:23:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299415 - Bolstered by hype and billions of dollars of investment, companies are planning to plant hundreds of thousands of hectares on reportedly degraded land across Brazil. Firms are also investing in major refining facilities. This macaúba gold rush was triggered by major financial incentives from the Brazilian government.
- Macaúba’s potential green attributes are similar to jatropha, a once promising biofuel feedstock that bombed a decade ago. Macaúba is widespread but currently undomesticated. Whether macaúba plantations can achieve the yield and scale needed to help satisfy the world’s sustainable energy needs remains unknown.
- Industry proponents state that it can be produced sustainably with no land-use change or deforestation. But other analysts say that very much depends on how the coming boom, in Brazil and elsewhere, pans out.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/ https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/#respond 29 Oct 2024 14:55:41 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289353 - This week those arguments are finally being heard at the COP16 biodiversity summit in Cali, Colombia. Also being seriously considered are the “perverse subsidies” offered to the forestry industry by national governments to convert forests into wood pellets, and to biomass power plants that burn those pellets.
- These issues have not achieved such a high level of official notice before at a UN summit and could result in the question of forest biomass subsidies being raised at the COP29 climate meeting next month in Baku, Azerbaijan.
- The illogic of forest biomass burning was especially noted by Barry Gardiner, a UK member of Parliament who objects to huge taxpayer subsidies paid to Drax, a British biomass power plant operator. “That’s $9 billion in public money spent making our air pollution and our carbon emissions worse,” while razing forests.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/#respond 14 Jun 2023 15:58:09 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269831 - While these experiments showed promise, the challenges for scaling up production of grass and woody shrub-derived biofuels over the next few decades remain significant. And time is short, as climate change is rapidly accelerating.
- Another roadblock to large-scale production: Millions of acres of land in the U.S. Southeast and Great Plains states would need to be earmarked for grass cultivation to make it economically and commercially viable as a biofuel.
- If many of those millions of acres required conversion of natural lands to agriculture, then deforestation and biodiversity loss due to biofuel monoculture crop expansion could be a major problem. On the plus side, grass biofuel crops likely wouldn’t directly displace food crops, unlike corn to make ethanol, or soy to make biodiesel.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/#respond 12 May 2023 03:22:52 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268526 - Tenny Kristiana of the International Council on Clean Transportation argues Indonesia could develop a domestic cellulosic ethanol industry that would use leftover plant residues such as palm trunks, empty palm fruit bunches and palm press fiber.
- Currently, Indonesia exports these leftovers to countries like Japan, but developing an industry at home could aid local farmers and create new jobs in factories, transportation and plantation work.
- This post is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/#respond 11 May 2023 15:57:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268493 - Humanity produces millions of tons of sewage sludge annually via wastewater treatment. Existing disposal methods include landfilling, application on agricultural land, and incineration; each with social and environmental consequences.
- Harnessing the carbon-rich potential of sludge as a transportation fuel for planes, ships and trucks is part of a drive toward zero waste and creating a circular economy, say experts. A host of projects are underway to prove the effectiveness of various methods of turning all this crud into biocrude.
- Some techniques show promise in lab and pilot tests, but large-scale industrial plants have yet to be built. Using pollutant-laden sewage sludge as a biofuel comes with its own environmental concerns, but lacking a silver-bullet solution to the human waste problem, it could be part of a suite of best alternatives.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/#respond 06 Apr 2023 19:52:59 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267285 - A jatropha rush ensued, with more than 900,000 hectares (2.2 million acres) planted by 2008. But the bubble burst. Low yields led to plantation failures nearly everywhere. The aftermath of the jatropha crash was tainted by accusations of land grabbing, mismanagement, and overblown carbon reduction claims.
- Today, some researchers continue pursuing the evasive promise of high-yielding jatropha. A comeback, they say, is dependent on cracking the yield problem and addressing the harmful land-use issues intertwined with its original failure.
- The sole remaining large jatropha plantation is in Ghana. The plantation owner claims high-yield domesticated varieties have been achieved and a new boom is at hand. But even if this comeback falters, the world’s experience of jatropha holds important lessons for any promising up-and-coming biofuel.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/#respond 20 Mar 2023 21:29:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266592 - Three generations of biofuel sources — corn, soy, palm oil, organic waste, grasses and other perennial cellulose crops, algae, and more — have been funded, researched and tested as avenues to viable low-carbon liquid fuels. But technological and upscaling challenges have repeatedly frustrated their widespread use.
- Producing biofuels can do major environmental harm, including deforestation and biodiversity loss due to needed cropland expansion, with biofuel crops sometimes displacing important food crops, say critics. In some instances, land use change for biofuels can add to carbon emissions rather than curbing them.
- Some experts suggest that the holy grail of an efficient biofuel is still obtainable, with much to be learned from past experiments. Others say we would be better off abandoning this techno fix, investing instead in electrifying the transportation grid to save energy, and rewilding former biofuel croplands to store more carbon.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/ https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/#respond 10 Jan 2023 14:48:01 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264489 - The government will in February increase the biofuel blend in diesel to 35%, from the current 30%, with an eye on a 50:50 blend by 2025 — and eventually fossil-free biodiesel.
- But the program calls for a massive increase in palm oil production — and with yields largely stagnant, this will almost certainly mean clearing more land to establish new oil palm plantations.
- Experts say the government should diversify its sources of biofuel feedstock to curb the expansion of plantations into forests and to reduce the other risks that comes from relying on a single feedstock.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/ https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/#respond 19 May 2022 03:56:36 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256003 - The arrest of Lin Che Wei, who prosecutors allege was “involved in every palm oil policy,” also puts the spotlight on the state palm oil fund that he helped create and that disproportionately channels subsidies to many of the same companies implicated in the cooking oil scandal.
- President Joko Widodo has called for a thorough investigation to “find out who is playing a game here,” but the palm oil lobby has pushed back against what it says is a vilification of the industry — even threatening to stop producing cooking oil for the domestic market.
- The cooking oil shortage has battered domestic trust in Indonesia’s powerful palm oil industry, whose reputation abroad has long been tarnished by its links to deforestation, labor abuses, and conflicts with Indigenous and local communities.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/ https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/#respond 04 Apr 2022 14:47:17 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254445 - The country’s business competition regulator points to indications of cartel practices by the handful of conglomerates that dominate the industry.
- But government policies may also be to blame, experts say, including incentivizing palm oil producers to sell to the government’s biofuel program instead of to cooking oil refiners.
- Parliament has called hearings on the issue, while the competition watchdog has launched a formal investigation.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/ https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/#respond 09 Feb 2022 13:35:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252499 - They say the plant has shown the ability to grow in burned areas and former mining sites, as well as in waterlogged peat soils.
- Oil from the tree, native to tropical Asia, has been used for centuries across the region as a salve for wounds and scars, and in lotions and balms.
- With the Indonesian government’s ambitious biodiesel program requiring the establishment of more oil palm plantations, alternative feedstocks like tamanu could help stave off the associated deforestation.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/ https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/#respond 12 Jul 2021 10:48:22 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244675 - A new report projects demand for biofuel more than halving as EVs take hold, even as the government continues to invest heavily in refineries and other infrastructure for producing and distributing palm oil-based biodiesel.
- The report calls for a long-term plan for biofuel that takes into account the rapid development of EVs and that doesn’t rely solely on palm oil for feedstock.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/ https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/#respond 02 Jul 2021 14:35:29 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244462 - But there is a lack of government regulatory support, while the nation’s new president is betting on fossil fuels and neglecting biodiesel options and nature-based climate solutions.
- As a result, small biodiesel producers have to operate in a legal gray zone, while industry entrepreneurs are held back in the development of the technology and the market.
- Mexico isn’t alone: Many nations large and small are struggling with hurdles imposed by fossil fuel-friendly governments and a lack of supportive regulations to create a level playing field for the rapid development and deployment of biodiesel and other climate-friendly alternative energy solutions.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/ https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/#respond 09 Jun 2021 14:41:18 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243479 - It says contradictory and opaque government policies “create conditions for producers to maintain business-as-usual production systems, instead of investing in more sustainable production innovations, such as increasing land productivity.”
- Experts also say the biodiesel program should only serve as a transition to more sustainable forms of renewable energy, and not the long-term solution that the government is touting.
- Palm oil plantations are the single biggest driver of deforestation in Indonesia.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/ https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/#respond 20 May 2021 08:52:16 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242857 - Missing from that list was Indonesia, whose president, Joko Widodo, instead called on industrialized countries to set an example for other nations to follow.
- Climate and policy experts in Indonesia say his failure to announce a bold target for achieving net-zero emissions is a missed opportunity for Indonesia to show global leadership based on its success in reducing deforestation.
- They also criticized a government proposal, not yet officially endorsed by the president, to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070 — 20 years later than most other major emitters.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/ https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/#respond 13 Apr 2021 20:45:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241586 - In making the move, Belgium joins Denmark, France, and the Netherlands as other European nations that have barred palm oil-based biodiesel due the crop’s association with large-scale conversion of native forests and peatlands for industrial plantations, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia.
- The ban was the first measure Belgium has taken since it became a member of the Amsterdam Declaration Partnership, which aims to eliminate deforestation from agricultural commodities by 2025.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/ https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/#respond 28 Dec 2020 08:30:24 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238329 - There’s growing fear over accelerated deforestation to clear land for more plantations as the government continues to promote palm oil-based biodiesel — even as others refuse to recognize it as a renewable fuel.
- The country’s new palm oil frontier, in the forests of Papua, is tainted by allegations of falsified permits and violence against Indigenous communities.
- At the same time, new legislation exempts plantation operators from environmental requirements and allows for the whitewashing of illegal plantations in forests.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/ https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/#respond 21 Dec 2020 06:16:26 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238106 - The program, through which Indonesia plans to eventually phase out the use of conventional diesel, will require planting 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of oil palms, according to the energy minister.
- Energy and environmental experts say it’s inevitable that massive swaths of forest will have to be cleared to meet this target, and have called for it to be scaled back.
- They also question the drive to ramp up the biodiesel program, given that Indonesia has expressed its ambitions to be a global production hub for electric vehicles — which don’t run on diesel, whether conventional or bio.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/ https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/#respond 05 Aug 2020 07:59:53 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=233396 - While not the initial drivers of deforestation in those areas, these plantations shouldn’t be certified sustainable if that history is accounted for, the study authors say.
- “The fact that someone else did deforestation just a few years before does not absolve the palm oil plantation’s owner and definitely does not justify a sustainability label by a certification scheme,” says co-author Roberto Cazzolla Gatti.
- He adds the RSPO’s failure to account for past deforestation means that “every logged area ‘today’ could be certified as a sustainable plantation ‘tomorrow,’ in an infinite loop of meaningless certification.”
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/ https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/#respond 01 Jul 2020 05:37:43 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232007 - Campaigners have blasted the move, noting that the fund through which the money will be channeled is meant to empower small oil palm farmers and not subsidize the giant multinationals that produce biodiesel.
- Since 2015, the government has used the fund to both subsidize producers and artificially lower the price of biodiesel at the pump to keep it competitive with regular diesel.
- Studies have shown that the deforestation inherent in the production of palm biodiesel means it emits up to three times as much CO2 as fossil fuels, making crop-based biofuels counterproductive to efforts to cut emissions.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/#respond 17 Dec 2019 06:15:49 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225000 - The plan risks permitting the legitimization of illegal plantations inside forests, effectively rewarding environmental violators.
- It also seeks to count palm oil-based biodiesel as a green offset to fossil fuels, despite overwhelming evidence showing that the production of the fuel will lead to greater deforestation and a net increase in carbon emissions.
- The plan also gives mining and other extractives companies an easy way out of their obligation to rehabilitate their degraded concessions, by permitting these areas to be planted with oil palms instead of being reforested.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/#respond 15 Oct 2019 00:36:03 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223414 - The two Southeast Asian countries supply 85 percent of the world’s palm oil, and have denounced the EU policy as discriminatory.
- The EU has justified its decision on the environmental impact of palm oil production, notably the large-scale deforestation to clear land for palm plantations.
- Concerns have also been raised that Indonesia’s response of boosting its domestic production of palm-based biodiesel, which a minister calls “green fuel,” could actually result in a net increase in carbon emissions.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/#respond 23 Aug 2019 07:12:13 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=221529 - That would allow Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, to increase its exports to China, its No. 3 market.
- A senior Indonesian official said there would be no forest-clearing to support any anticipated increase in exports, with higher yields expected to come from better technology and seeds.
- The move presents a respite for Indonesia, which faces a biofuel phase-out in the EU and a likely increase in duties in India, its top two export markets.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/#respond 21 May 2019 08:19:38 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=218656 - The publication of the data is a necessary part of sustainability certification under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
- Activists say they fear that withholding the information will further damage the reputation of Indonesia’s palm oil industry, which is already beset by allegations of deforestation, land grabbing, and labor rights abuses.
- The government has for years sent out mixed messages about whether it will make available the plantation data, which activists say is crucial in helping resolve the hundreds of land disputes across Indonesia, most of them involving palm concessions.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/#respond 03 May 2019 11:24:10 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=218316 - Malaysia and fellow ASEAN member Indonesia supply more than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil, while Singapore, another ASEAN state, is home to some of the world’s biggest palm oil companies and the banks that finance the industry.
- Malaysia’s minister of primary industries, Teresa Kok, says there’s a global campaign to portray the production of palm oil as exceptionally destructive, which she calls “extremely provocative and belittling.”
- While both the Malaysian and Indonesian governments have instated policies to curb the clearing of rainforest for palm plantations, there still remain challenges to ensuring sustainability across the wider industry, environmental activists say.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/#respond 11 Apr 2019 06:26:32 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217244 - Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs, says Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, can follow in the footsteps of the United States, which has declared its withdrawal from the climate pact, and Brazil, which is considering doing the same.
- The threat is the latest escalation in a diplomatic spat that has also seen Indonesia and Malaysia, the No. 2 palm oil producer, threaten retaliatory trade measures against the European Union.
- The EU says its policy is driven by growing consumer concerns about the sustainability of palm oil, which in Indonesia is often grown on plantations for which vast swaths of rainforest have had to be cleared.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/#respond 15 Mar 2019 12:59:06 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216568 - Officials in Indonesia and Malaysia, which together produce 85 percent of global supply of the commodity, say the move is discriminatory and have vowed a vigorous response, including lobbying EU member states to oppose it, bringing the matter before the WTO, and imposing retaliatory measures on goods from the EU.
- Environmental activists say the policy doesn’t go far enough, leaving loopholes that will allow palm oil produced under certain circumstances to continue being treated as a renewable fuel, thereby allowing for the expansion of palm estates into peat forests.
- They have also criticized the policy’s failure to label soybean oil as high risk, in light of growing evidence that deforestation linked to the cultivation of soy may be just as bad as or worse than that of palm oil.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/#respond 02 Mar 2019 12:29:35 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216084 - Kok said the prime minister’s cabinet will weigh a proposal to cap Malaysia’s palm oil estate at 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres). Malaysia currently has 5.85 million hectares, so the cap provides allowances for about 150,000 hectares of expansion already underway.
- Kok said that Malaysia could continue to increase palm oil production despite the cap by improving yields of existing plantations.
- The proposed move comes in response to criticism over palm oil’s link to large-scale deforestation in Southeast Asia.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/ https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/#respond 20 Feb 2019 10:04:27 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215621 - Environmental activists and experts have criticized the candidates for not addressing the negative aspects of palm oil production, which both are pushing as a feedstock for biodiesel, in what is seen as a voter-pleasing appeal to resource nationalism.
- Nearly 200 million people in Indonesia, home to the world’s third-largest rainforest and also the biggest producer of palm oil, are eligible to vote in the upcoming election.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/ https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/#respond 25 Jan 2018 07:48:45 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203131 - That surge in demand could result in the clearing of 45,000 square kilometers (17,374 square miles) of forest in Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest palm oil producers, and the release of an additional 7 billion tons of CO2 emissions a year — higher than current annual emissions by the U.S.
- That impact could be tempered to some degree by the European Union, which plans to phase out all use of palm oil in its biofuel over the next three years, citing environmental concerns.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/feed/ 0 https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/ https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/#respond 21 Feb 2017 11:50:33 +0000 https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193334 - This rapid expansion has in some places taken a heavy toll on native, wildlife-rich ecosystems.
- Derek Byerlee, co-author of a new book titled The Tropical Oil Crop Revolution, spoke with Mongabay about the tropical oil crop sector and what’s to come for the industry.
]]> Mongabay]]> https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/feed/ 0