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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiesel/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<url>https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/16160320/cropped-mongabay_icon-32x32.png</url>
	<title>News on Biodiesel</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/biodiesel/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Community-based biofuels offer ‘sensible’ alternative to palm oil for Indonesia, analysis shows</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 May 2025 10:11:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/12/12115412/oil-palm-fruit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299547</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Climate Change, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, and Renewable Energy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s push to meet its ambitious biofuel targets by expanding oil palm plantations could cost the country billions in environmental damage and social conflict, a new analysis by environmental NGO Madani Berkelanjutan warns. But if Indonesia diversifies its biofuel feedstock sources at community level, it could cut the ecological and social costs to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia’s push to meet its ambitious biofuel targets by expanding oil palm plantations could cost the country billions in environmental damage and social conflict, a new analysis by environmental NGO Madani Berkelanjutan warns. But if Indonesia diversifies its biofuel feedstock sources at community level, it could cut the ecological and social costs to zero while still meeting its energy goals, the analysis found. Indonesia, the world’s top palm oil producer, has aggressively pursued biofuel development in recent years, especially palm-based biodiesel, to boost energy sovereignty and reduce fossil fuel reliance. As of January this year, Indonesia requires all diesel sold at the pump to contain 40% palm-based biodiesel, a blend known as B40. The government plans to increase this to B50 next year, making it one of the most ambitious biodiesel transition programs in the world. The current B40 mandate alone requires a supply of 14.2 million metric tons of crude palm oil (CPO). The B50 plan would raise that to 18 million metric tons, fueling concerns over the industry’s heavy environmental footprint. This heavy reliance on palm oil has raised major environmental, economic and social concerns. In its analysis, Madani compared the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, where Indonesia continues to develop palm oil to meet its biodiesel mandate, with an alternative scenario where communities are given the opportunity to develop their own biodiesel crops other than oil palm. Oil palm fruits harvested in Kalimantan. Image by Cooke Vieira/CIFOR via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Business as usual Under the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/community-based-biofuels-offer-sensible-alternative-to-palm-oil-for-indonesia-analysis-shows/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Brazil bets on macaúba palm to make renewable diesel and aviation biofuel</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2025 17:23:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/05/21140601/macauba-palm-fruits-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=299415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Brazil, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, Soy, Transportation, and Trees]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Macaúba palm, also known as macaw palm, grows all over the Americas. Now, a drive by the Brazilian government to incentivize the decarbonization of the transportation and aviation sectors has resulted in numerous companies turning to this palm as a potential feedstock to be refined into liquid biofuels and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) across the Latin American nation. On paper, macaúba palm appears to be a miracle plant: It thrives on degraded, unproductive land, so won’t compete with food crops or cause new deforestation, and, in testing, it has yields eight to ten times higher than soy, depending on whom you ask. Soybeans already feed Brazil’s vast biofuels industry but, along with sugarcane, soy is tied to environmental harm, especially deforestation and CO2 emissions, and environmental justice issues. According to proponents, macaúba promises to sidestep these issues; it’s already dubbed as “green gold” and “rainforest-friendly palm oil.” But there are significant environmental and financial risk too, say critics. Macaúba’s promotion closely parallels past hype from investors and entrepreneurs who backed a would-be biofuel called jatropha, so offers a cautionary tale. In the 2000s, jatropha — also hailed as “green gold” — ticked many of the same boxes and its boom saw dozens of projects planting the energy crop across the tropics, only to then fail spectacularly, as it proved far more challenging to grow than claimed. The effort cost millions of dollars, and spawned widespread accusations of land grabbing, while resulting in land-use change and biodiversity loss in tropical countries.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/05/brazil-bets-on-macauba-palm-to-make-renewable-diesel-and-aviation-biofuel/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-299415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Action against forest biomass subsidies gains momentum at COP16</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Oct 2024 14:55:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Justin Catanoso]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[global forests]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/10/29131303/Drax-is-the-largest-consumer-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=289353</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Law, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Industry, Planetary Boundaries, Politics, Renewable Energy, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CALI, Colombia – For years, at annual United Nations climate summits, forest advocates eager to draw critical attention to the scientifically dubious benefits of burning forest biomass to make energy were ignored, and their recommendations never added to official UN agendas for discussion or a vote. But here at the UN Biodiversity summit, known as [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CALI, Colombia – For years, at annual United Nations climate summits, forest advocates eager to draw critical attention to the scientifically dubious benefits of burning forest biomass to make energy were ignored, and their recommendations never added to official UN agendas for discussion or a vote. But here at the UN Biodiversity summit, known as COP16, forest campaigners have attained some traction as national representatives — dedicated to addressing biodiversity loss and global deforestation — hear about how wood pellet production and biomass burning are tied intrinsically to both problems. On October 21, the first day of COP16, the Biomass Action network, a coalition of 200 civil society groups in 60 countries, held a series of events (including in Cali) to highlight research and evidence of environmental harm caused by harvesting trees for wood-pellet manufacture, and the burning of those pellets in former coal-fired power plants. This broadening awareness comes at a crucial moment: The demand for forest biomass energy is surging in the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan and South Korea, where national governments erroneously claim burning pellets produces zero emissions. Meanwhile, the supply of pellets to meet that demand (so far sourced mostly from forests in the Southeastern United States and British Columbia, Canada), is expanding rapidly into the tropics, with new pellet mills planned and opening in Vietnam and especially Indonesia. The clear cutting of forests to supply biomass is happening despite a rapidly escalating climate crisis in which intact forests — with their ability to store&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/10/action-against-forest-biomass-subsidies-gains-momentum-at-cop16/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-289353</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Seas of grass may be dark horse candidate to fuel the planet — or not</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Jun 2023 15:58:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carly Nairn]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/06/14155012/switchgrass-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=269831</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Use Change, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sustainable liquid biofuels are needed to reduce the carbon footprint of fossil fuel-powered planes, ships, trucks and cars. Grass feedstock has shown promise in biofuel labs, but commercial scaling up may be an insurmountable hurdle.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Large-scale efforts to seriously curb reliance on fossil fuels for global energy needs, especially in the transportation sector, are leading scientists, farmers, policymakers and environmentalists to consider numerous liquid biofuel alternatives in energy production. A few biofuels, such as ethanol made from corn, and biodiesel made from soy, are already in use, where 10-20% of the fuel mix at the gas pump is bio-based. Other potential, but more exotic, biofuels, including those made from algae and organic waste, are moving from a decades-long research phase slowly toward development — as the energy industry now confronts the big challenges of scaling up production to meet large-scale global needs. But another potential energy source not benefiting from the media fanfare that has accompanied the turning of algae or poop into fuel, is grass. Grasses cover large swaths of the Earth, are relatively easy to grow, and can sometimes serve dual roles as agricultural cover crop and liquid fuel source. Several types of plants and grasses such as sorghum, Miscanthus or Chinese silvergrass, Panicum virgatum or switchgrass, as well as hybrid strains of fast-growing poplar and willow woody shrubs are currently being tested at research and university facilities across the United States in the hope they will one day be major cellulose-based biofuel players. Gerald Tuskan, director at the Center for Bioenergy Innovation (CBI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, says a sea of switchgrass grown in the U.S. Great Plains might be the key to unlocking a sustainable aviation fuel in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/06/seas-of-grass-may-be-dark-horse-candidate-to-fuel-the-planet-or-not/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-269831</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>From palm oil waste to cellulosic ethanol: Indonesia’s opportunity (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 May 2023 03:22:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tenny Kristiana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/11165418/palm-oil-workers-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268526</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Business, Clean Energy, Commentary, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Industry, Palm Oil, Plantations, Pollution, Renewable Energy, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s biofuel program was supposed to be a boon for small farmers. But although the country’s biodiesel production has skyrocketed, many farmers complain that the program hasn’t benefited them. Farmers are still struggling to become part of the biodiesel supply chain, which is dominated by large palm oil firms. How can the situation be addressed? [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s biofuel program was supposed to be a boon for small farmers. But although the country’s biodiesel production has skyrocketed, many farmers complain that the program hasn’t benefited them. Farmers are still struggling to become part of the biodiesel supply chain, which is dominated by large palm oil firms. How can the situation be addressed? Cellulosic ethanol could be the answer. Cellulosic ethanol is derived from plant fibers, which are generally composed of cellulose. Indonesia’s palm oil industry, the world’s largest, produces huge volumes of leftover plant residues such as palm trunks, empty palm fruit bunches and palm press fiber. With advanced technology, these raw materials can be turned into ethanol that can be blended with gasoline. Last year, President Joko Widodo announced plans to expand Indonesia’s sugar cultivation area to 700,000 hectares (1.7 million acres), part of a bid to boost development of renewable sugar-based ethanol and wean the country of excessive petroleum consumption. But with vacant land often hard to come by in a nation of some 280 million people, my organization, the International Council on Clean Transportation, believes cellulosic ethanol could serve as an alternative. Straw waste can be used as raw material for cellulosic ethanol. Photo: Falahi Mubarok for Mongabay Indonesia. Our recent study on cellulosic ethanol found Indonesia has high potential to develop the industry, capable of producing up to 2 million kiloliters (528 million gallons) per year from palm residues alone. Currently, Indonesia exports these residues to countries like Japan, which imports palm kernel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/from-palm-oil-waste-to-cellulosic-ethanol-indonesias-opportunity-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268526</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Crud-to-crude: The global potential of biofuels made from human waste</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 May 2023 15:57:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/05/11130143/1-To-Syn-Fuel-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=268493</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Europe, Global, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Chemicals, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Drinking Water, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Green Design, Health, Impact Of Climate Change, Nutrient Pollution, Oceans, Planetary Health, Pollution, Public Health, Recycling, Research, Rivers, Sustainability, Sustainable Development, Transportation, Waste, Water, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Last year, a car fueled by human waste toured the European countryside, covering more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles). It was the culmination of To-Syn-Fuel, a pathfinding project using technology developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT to make 50,000 liters (13,200 gallons) of biocrude oil from 500 tons of sewage sludge. The trip marked a [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Last year, a car fueled by human waste toured the European countryside, covering more than 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles). It was the culmination of To-Syn-Fuel, a pathfinding project using technology developed by Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute UMSICHT to make 50,000 liters (13,200 gallons) of biocrude oil from 500 tons of sewage sludge. The trip marked a milestone in global efforts to convert human waste into a viable transportation fuel, according to Robert Daschner, head of the department of renewable energy at Fraunhofer UMSICHT, which led the multi-partner project funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. Using To-Syn-Fuel can achieve carbon savings of up to 85% compared to fossil fuels, he wrote to Mongabay in an email. But that historic EU road trip was only an intermediary goal: Next up is the construction of a larger-scale crud-to-crude facility in Germany, built upon lessons learned from a smaller proof-of-concept demonstration plant. The aim is to process up to 400,000 metric tons of sewage sludge into “sustainable aviation fuel” by 2030, Daschner wrote. If this, or other promising crud-to-crude pilot projects, achieve truly scaled-up success, science and industry could crack one of the hardest nuts for realizing a post-fossil fuel economy: a transportation liquid fuel, with low-carbon potential to power cars, trucks, jets and ships. Fraunhofer UMSICHT’s Robert Daschner says an industrial-scale biocrude oil manufacturing site is in the works in Germany. Fully accounting for the potential carbon savings will only be possible once this project is up and running. Image © Fraunhofer UMSICHT.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/05/crud-to-crude-the-global-potential-of-biofuels-made-from-human-waste/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-268493</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Jatropha: The biofuel that bombed seeks a path to redemption</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Apr 2023 19:52:59 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/04/06155110/Jatropha-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=267285</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ghana, Global, and Qatar]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Governance, Land Use Change, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[At the start of the 2000s, the search for a “miracle” biofuel led to a stubby Latin American tree. But jatropha’s boom went bust when high yields and big eco benefits failed to materialize. Now some say it’s set for a return.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[At the beginning of the 21st century, Jatropha curcas, an unassuming shrub-like tree native to Central America, was planted across the world. The rush to jatropha was driven by its promise as a sustainable source of biofuel that could be grown on degraded, unfertile lands so as not to displace food crops. But inflated claims of high yields fell flat. Now, after years of research and development, the sole remaining large plantation focused on growing jatropha is in Ghana. And Singapore-based jOil, which owns that plantation, claims the jatropha comeback is on. “All those companies that failed, adopted a plug-and-play model of scouting for the wild varieties of jatropha. But to commercialize it, you need to domesticate it. This is a part of the process that was missed [during the boom],” jOil CEO Vasanth Subramanian told Mongabay in an interview. Having learned from the mistakes of jatropha’s past failures, he says the oily plant could yet play a key role as a liquid biofuel feedstock, reducing transportation carbon emissions at the global level. A new boom could bring additional benefits, with jatropha also a potential source of fertilizers and even bioplastics. But some researchers are skeptical, noting that jatropha has already gone through one hype-and-fizzle cycle. They caution that if the plant is to reach full potential, then it is essential to learn from past mistakes. During the first boom, jatropha plantations were hampered not only by poor yields, but by land grabbing, deforestation, and social problems in countries where&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/04/jatropha-the-biofuel-that-bombed-seeks-a-path-to-redemption/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-267285</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A liquid biofuels primer: Carbon-cutting hopes vs. real-world impacts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2023 21:29:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/03/20142640/sugarcane-india-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=266592</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy, Covering Climate Now, Covering the Commons, and Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, algae, Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Sequestration, Climate Change, Conservation, Deforestation, Degraded Lands, Drivers Of Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Environmental Policy, Ethanol, Governance, Grasslands, Impact Of Climate Change, Land Use Change, Plantations, Politics, Pollution, Research, and Transportation]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Biofuels have long been held up as a viable high-tech climate solution, but in practice they’ve often not lived up to their promise, causing environmental harm and in some cases being more carbon-intensive than fossil fuels.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As climate change has escalated over the decades, the demand for efficient liquid biofuels, especially to power the transportation sector, has grown more urgent, placing increased pressure on fragile ecosystems, even leading to outright bans. Three generations of biofuels have been explored — with corn, soy, palm oil, grasses, algae and many other organic sources tried — but with most failing to fully live up to their promise. Still, biofuels remain a go-to climate solution for policymakers who view them as a green, carbon-cutting transition route to wean the world off fossil fuels. Globally, investment in liquid biofuels hovered around $4 billion over the past decade, doubling in 2021 to more than $8 billion, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), and more is needed to unlock the potential of “advanced biofuels,” it states. Over the years, a range of government policies has subsidized or supported the industry to the tune of billions of dollars in some cases. Recently, the U.S. government’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel Grand Challenge, for example, pledged around $4.3 billion to support research and help fuel producers develop clean biofuels. Despite these efforts, three stumbling blocks have kept some biofuels from going mainstream and others mired in controversy: thorny technological problems, the inability to achieve cost-efficient upscaling, and environmental harm (ranging from deforestation to pollution). An ethanol production plant in Indiana, U.S. Debate over whether biofuels truly provide climate benefits continues, with various studies achieving contradictory results. Image by cassini83 via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain). A study&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/03/a-liquid-biofuels-primer-carbon-cutting-hopes-vs-real-world-impacts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-266592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s biofuel push must go beyond palm oil to reduce risk, experts say</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Jan 2023 14:48:01 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/01/10142952/20221130_122241-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=264489</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia must develop a new feedstock alternative to palm oil as the government intensifies an ambitious biofuel program meant to move away from diesel, observers say. From February this year, diesel sold at the pump must be a blend of 65% fossil diesel and 35% plant-based biodiesel, or B35. The currently available blend [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia must develop a new feedstock alternative to palm oil as the government intensifies an ambitious biofuel program meant to move away from diesel, observers say. From February this year, diesel sold at the pump must be a blend of 65% fossil diesel and 35% plant-based biodiesel, or B35. The currently available blend of diesel is B30, which means it contains 30% biofuel, derived from palm oil. This intensification, set to increase to B50 by 2025, and eventually B100 — biofuel with zero fossil diesel — will invariably mean more oil palm plantations will have to be established. And with new plantations comes the associated risk of an increase in deforestation, experts warn. “From the studies that we collected … there’s a resounding theme,” Anggalia Putri, from the environmental NGO Madani, said at a recent discussion in Jakarta. “It looks like additional lands will be needed [to meet the biofuel demand].” She cited a 2021 study by the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR), an Indonesian policy think tank, that estimated 4 million to 6 million hectares (10 million to 15 million acres) of land will have to be converted into oil palm plantations to fulfill domestic and export demand for palm biofuel by 2024. That’s in addition to the existing oil palm estate in Indonesia of more than 16 million hectares (40 million acres) — an area the size of Florida. Indonesia is by far the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, but even so faces a&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/01/indonesias-biofuel-push-must-go-beyond-palm-oil-to-reduce-risk-experts-say/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-264489</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Slick operator: Indonesian cooking oil probe may spread to biodiesel industry</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 May 2022 03:56:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/12/14054859/palm-oil-plantation-on-rainforest-peatland-Borneo-Indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=256003</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Business, Corporations, Corruption, Crime, Environment, International Trade, Law, Law Enforcement, Organized Crime, Palm Oil, Politics, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Prosecutors in Indonesia have arrested a prominent economist in an ongoing investigation into why the world’s top producer of palm oil is suffering a domestic shortage of cooking oil. This latest development also puts another offshoot of the country’s palm oil industry — biodiesel production — in investigators’ crosshairs. Lin Che Wei, founder [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Prosecutors in Indonesia have arrested a prominent economist in an ongoing investigation into why the world’s top producer of palm oil is suffering a domestic shortage of cooking oil. This latest development also puts another offshoot of the country’s palm oil industry — biodiesel production — in investigators’ crosshairs. Lin Che Wei, founder of economic policy think tank Independent Research &amp; Advisory Indonesia, has been charged for his alleged role as a key fixer working behind the scenes to secure export permits for crude palm oil (CPO) producers from the Ministry of Trade. Prosecutors have already arrested and charged the ministry’s director-general for international trade, Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana, and executives from three major palm oil producers: the Permata Hijau Group, Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, and Musim Mas. They’ve also questioned several individuals from other companies and say more arrests are likely. Prosecutors allege a massive conspiracy by corrupt officials and palm oil companies to allow the latter to sell CPO abroad and skirt their obligations to allocate a quota for the domestic market. International palm oil prices have been riding record highs in recent months, making it far more profitable for producers to export the commodity rather than sell it inside Indonesia, where the government has capped the CPO price. Lin, a consultant or adviser to various government ministers going back to the early 2000s, played an outsized role in this conspiracy, prosecutors say. Supardi, director of investigations in the Attorney General’s Office, told local media that Lin was&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/05/slick-operator-indonesian-cooking-oil-probe-may-spread-to-biodiesel-industry/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-256003</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>For Indonesians, palm oil is everywhere but on supermarket shelves</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>04 Apr 2022 14:47:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/04141351/kominfo-jokowi-cek-migor-yogyakarta.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254445</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Business, Corporations, Environment, International Trade, Oil, Palm Oil, Plantations, Supply Chain, and Trade]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Cartel practices have been blamed for a scarcity of cooking oil in the world’s top producer of palm oil — but government policies seen as coddling the industry have also come under scrutiny. Households across Indonesia have since last October experienced acute shortages of cooking oil. Even when supplies have been available, prices [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Cartel practices have been blamed for a scarcity of cooking oil in the world’s top producer of palm oil — but government policies seen as coddling the industry have also come under scrutiny. Households across Indonesia have since last October experienced acute shortages of cooking oil. Even when supplies have been available, prices have often been multiples of what the product would usually retail for. The scarcity has prompted widespread complaints from regular citizens and from politicians, with parliament launching hearings into why Indonesia, which produces more than half of the world’s crude palm oil, by far the dominant source of edible vegetable oil, is running out. “It means that there are parties that are playing [the market] in this cooking oil issue, including in determining the retail prices of cooking oil in the market,” said Ahmad Muzani, a deputy speaker of the People&#8217;s Consultative Assembly (MPR). In a stop-gap measure, the government in late January capped the price of palm cooking oil at retail outlets at 14,000 rupiah (about $1) per liter. But it removed the cap in mid-March, leading to prices more than doubling in some regions. The Indonesian Minister of Trade, Muhammad Lutfi, inspects the availability of cooking oil in Jakarta in March 2022. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Trade. Cooking oil cartel? Industry analysts trace the problem to the nation’s palm oil industry being dominated by a small number of conglomerates. This has given rise to indications of cartel practices, where producers&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/for-indonesians-palm-oil-is-everywhere-but-on-supermarket-shelves/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254445</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Can the little-known tamanu tree replace palm oil in Indonesia’s biofuel bid?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Feb 2022 13:35:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nuswantoro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Philip Jacobson]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/02/09132556/Budi-Lesksono-tamanu-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=252499</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Agroecology and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[agribusiness, Agriculture, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Environment, Oil, Palm Oil, Plantations, Research, Trees, Tropical Conservation Science, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Even as a boy, Budi Leksono knew the tamanu tree had many uses. The small, hard fruit of the tree, about the size of a pingpong ball, made for a convenient plaything. Budi used to pick them from the one growing outside his home in Pekalongan — tamanu trees had been planted [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Even as a boy, Budi Leksono knew the tamanu tree had many uses. The small, hard fruit of the tree, about the size of a pingpong ball, made for a convenient plaything. Budi used to pick them from the one growing outside his home in Pekalongan — tamanu trees had been planted all along Java’s northern coast during colonial times — and watch as road repair workers used tamanu wood, which can burn even when wet, to heat the asphalt. “Since my childhood I have known the tamanu,&#8221; said Budi, now 58. &#8220;So when I began my research, it was already very familiar to me.” Today, Budi, a senior researcher at the Indonesian government’s Center for Forest Biotechnology and Tree Improvement, has a different vision for the tamanu tree: that it will serve as a pillar of Indonesia’s biodiesel program. The program currently relies on palm oil, the ubiquitous edible oil of which Indonesia is the world’s top producer. Palm oil comes from the red, spiky fruit of the oil palm tree (Elaeis guineensis), grown on huge monoculture plantations and smaller farms across Indonesia. Dried nyamplung fruit. The waste can be used as animal feed. Image by Nuswantoro/Mongabay Indonesia. Since its launch in 2008, the biodiesel program has been rolled out in stages, with the government mandating progressively higher concentrations of palm oil-derived biodiesel into conventional diesel. In its current B30 stage, the diesel sold at the pump contains a 30% blend of biodiesel and 70% diesel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/02/can-the-little-known-tamanu-tree-replace-palm-oil-in-indonesias-biofuel-bid/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-252499</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia bets on biofuels over oil, but EVs could render both moot</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Jul 2021 10:48:22 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/12103820/riau_0044-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244675</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Deforestation, Electric Cars, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Research, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The rapid development of electric vehicles looks set to overtake the biofuel infrastructure that Indonesia is investing heavily in, and could render the country’s alternative-fuel model redundant,  new projections show. In a report, Indonesian policy think tank the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) says that under a business-as-usual scenario, demand for biofuel [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The rapid development of electric vehicles looks set to overtake the biofuel infrastructure that Indonesia is investing heavily in, and could render the country’s alternative-fuel model redundant,  new projections show. In a report, Indonesian policy think tank the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) says that under a business-as-usual scenario, demand for biofuel in Indonesia will increase to 190 million metric tons by 2050. But if the EV market share increases, biofuel demand could end up being 93 million metric tons by 2050. The government is pushing for the development of EVs in the country, with the Indonesian Chambers Of Commerce and Industry (KADIN) predicting the country could become the world&#8217;s largest producer of lithium batteries and EVs thanks to its abundant reserves of nickel, a key component in EV development. “There’s a possibility that demand for liquid fuel won’t increase significantly and it won’t be far off from the existing oil refinery capacity,” IESR researcher Julius Christian Adiatma said at the online launch of the report. That leaves the future potential demand for biofuel, which in Indonesia is derived from palm oil, highly uncertain, the report says. Yet despite this uncertainty and its own push for EVs, the government is also aggressively promoting domestic biofuel production, including the most ambitious fossil-fuel-to-biofuel transition program in the world. The program calls for blending palm-based biofuel with diesel in increasingly larger proportions, eventually reaching a point where all the diesel sold at the pump is biodiesel. The aim is to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/indonesia-bets-on-biofuels-over-oil-but-evs-could-render-both-moot/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244675</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biofuel in Mexico: Uphill battle against bureaucracy, organized crime</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Jul 2021 14:35:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sandra Weiss]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/07/02142721/head2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=244462</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Bioenergy]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Latin America, Mexico, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Alternative Energy, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Business, carbon, Clean Energy, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Energy, Energy Efficiency, Environment, Food, Food Waste, Global Warming, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Natural Gas, Natural Resources, Nature-based climate solutions, Oil, Politics, Pollution, Recycling, Renewable Energy, Research, Solutions, Sustainability, and Waste]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Combining to hamstring Mexico’s climate-friendly biodiesel industry: a lack of regulatory support, a president favoring fossil fuels, competition from other industries for used cooking oil, and a crime network.]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PUEBLA, Mexico — Twice a week, Moisés Flores sends his pickup trucks on a tour of big fast-food and chain restaurants to collect what would otherwise end up as garbage: used frying oil. Puebla, his hometown in central Mexico, is a gastronomic hotspot, boasting many eateries, hotels and cooking academies, which use a lot of oil that can be converted into biodiesel for the transportation sector. And Flores’s town is not alone. Mexico consumes 1.28 billion liters (338 million gallons) of cooking oil annually. Half is used in the food and gastronomy industries, and the rest in households. A decade ago, that residual oil ended up in the trash or going down the sink — a problem for sewage treatment plants that ended up with clogged pipes and systems. Then recycling came along, and today used cooking oil is a sought-after raw material for which restaurants get paid — a paradigm shift organized by green entrepreneurs who are the pioneers of Mexico’s biodiesel movement. People like Moisés Flores. Biodiesel entrepreneur and engineer Moises Flores with a test tube sample of his biodiesel made from residual cooking oil in his Amro factory office in Puebla, Mexico. Image by Sandra Weiss. Recycling cooking oil for the climate &#8220;I&#8217;m solving two environmental problems,” Flores declares. “I&#8217;m taking waste out of circulation and turning it into clean and climate-friendly fuel.&#8221; The 32-year-old, speaking from his factory in western Puebla, recalls how he came up with the idea a decade ago. Mexico was just then&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/07/biofuel-in-mexico-uphill-battle-against-bureaucracy-organized-crime/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-244462</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s biodiesel program fuels deforestation threat, report warns</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jun 2021 14:41:18 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/06/09143728/indonesia_20151276-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=243479</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Certification, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Sustainability, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new report has added to growing concerns that Indonesia’s ambitious program to increase its use of palm oil-based biodiesel will drive greater deforestation across the country. The report, by London-based nonprofit CDP, an international platform for the disclosure of environmental risks, warns of conflicting policies and lack of transparency around biofuel regulations [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new report has added to growing concerns that Indonesia’s ambitious program to increase its use of palm oil-based biodiesel will drive greater deforestation across the country. The report, by London-based nonprofit CDP, an international platform for the disclosure of environmental risks, warns of conflicting policies and lack of transparency around biofuel regulations in Indonesia. It also notes the government’s aggressive push for greater adoption of palm-based biofuel, including fines or the threat of license revocation for producers who fail to meet the government’s biofuel mandate, as well as subsidies for companies to boost their biofuel production. The report says these 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.” “Therefore, biofuel regulations in Indonesia, as they stand, may lead to increased pressure on Indonesian forests,” it adds. The palm oil industry is already a major driver of deforestation in Indonesia. A 2019 study shows that oil palm plantations were the single largest driver of deforestation between 2001 and 2016, accounting for 23% of total deforestation nationwide. Even though new plantations are increasingly being developed on non-forested land, 18% of those established from 2010-2015 were in forested areas, according to a 2017 study. And unless the palm oil that goes into biodiesel can be shown to be deforestation-free, it’s misleading to claim that the biodiesel is “green fuel,” the CDP report says. The government has introduced a series of regulations and policies to curb&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/06/indonesias-biodiesel-program-fuels-deforestation-threat-report-warns/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-243479</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian president slammed for ‘wait-and-see’ approach on climate action</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 May 2021 08:52:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2021/04/12131127/iklim-IMG_8596-1200x800-1-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=242857</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian coal, Indonesian Forests, and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Emissions, charcoal, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Fires, Forest Carbon, Forests, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have criticized Indonesian President Joko Widodo for not announcing a more ambitious climate target at last month’s leaders’ summit called by U.S. President Joe Biden. During the two-day virtual summit, held in conjunction with Earth Day, a number of world leaders pledged to do more and act faster on climate change. Among [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Experts have criticized Indonesian President Joko Widodo for not announcing a more ambitious climate target at last month’s leaders’ summit called by U.S. President Joe Biden. During the two-day virtual summit, held in conjunction with Earth Day, a number of world leaders pledged to do more and act faster on climate change. Among the countries represented at the summit was Indonesia, one of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases, which come mainly from deforestation and forest fires. In his speech to fellow leaders, President Widodo said Indonesia was very serious about tackling climate change and called on the global community to take concrete actions and “lead by example.” A growing number of countries have announced targets to achieve carbon neutrality, where any residual emissions of greenhouse gasses are canceled out by measures to remove them from the atmosphere, by 2050. The most recent one is Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro announced during the summit that the country would reach emissions neutrality by 2050, his most ambitious environmental goal yet. Widodo said Indonesia welcomed such targets, but called on industrialized countries to set an example before less-industrialized ones like Indonesia could follow suit. Indonesia itself plans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2070. “Developing countries will adopt similar ambitions if developed countries support and are being credible with their commitments,” Widodo said. “The fulfillment of commitments and support by developed countries are indeed a necessity.” He stopped short of announcing a more ambitious climate target, and gave with no definitive&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/05/indonesian-president-joko-jokowi-widodo-slammed-for-wait-and-see-approach-on-climate-action/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-242857</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belgium bans biofuels made from palm oil, soy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Apr 2021 20:45:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/12/28150817/indonesia_20152243-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=241586</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belgium, Europe, and European Union]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Green, Palm Oil, Soy, Supply Chain, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Belgium will ban biofuels made from soy and palm oil from 2022 onward as part of its effort to combat deforestation, said the European nation&#8217;s Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Zakia Khattabi on Tuesday. &#8220;These fuels have little or no advantage over conventional fossil fuels from a climate point of view, but lead to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Belgium will ban biofuels made from soy and palm oil from 2022 onward as part of its effort to combat deforestation, said the European nation&#8217;s Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Zakia Khattabi on Tuesday. &#8220;These fuels have little or no advantage over conventional fossil fuels from a climate point of view, but lead to deforestation, loss of biodiversity and even human rights violations,&#8221; Khattabi said in a statement. Deforestation for an oil palm plantation in Indonesia&#8217;s Papua Province in 2019. Photo credit: Microsoft Zoom.Earth Khattabi said consumption of palm oil-based biodiesel in Belgium increased tenfold between 2019 and 2020 to 231 million liters, a volume that requires a land area of &#8220;more than 100,000 football fields.&#8221; &#8220;We know from studies that at least half of those palm oil plantations have been planted on land that has recently been deforested,&#8221; she said. 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&#8217;s association with large-scale conversion of native forests and peatlands for industrial plantations, especially in Malaysia and Indonesia. Soy-based biodiesel will be banned from the Belgian transport market in 2023. Soy has emerged as a significant driver of deforestation in the Amazon and Chaco forests in South America over the past 30 years. European imports of palm oil, soybean oil, and oil 1990-2019 (Index with 1990=100). Data from FAOSTAT. Khattabi said the ban was the first measure Belgium has taken since it became a member&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2021/04/belgium-bans-biofuels-made-from-palm-oil-soy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-241586</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top Indonesian palm oil developments in 2020</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Dec 2020 08:30:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/09/16142945/riau_5917-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238329</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Papua, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Land Rights, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, Year-end review, and Zero Deforestation Commitments]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As global demand for edible oil keeps growing, palm oil has enjoyed unprecedented growth both in consumption and production. Used in everything from chocolate to ice-cream, lipstick to shampoo, palm oil is now the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has brought a halt to the palm oil industry’s growth streak [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As global demand for edible oil keeps growing, palm oil has enjoyed unprecedented growth both in consumption and production. Used in everything from chocolate to ice-cream, lipstick to shampoo, palm oil is now the most consumed vegetable oil in the world. The COVID-19 pandemic, however, has brought a halt to the palm oil industry’s growth streak as nations enforce lockdown of varying degrees. But 2020 has been far from an uneventful year for the industry. Here are the highlights of palm oil stories from 2020 in Indonesia — by far the world’s biggest producer and exporter of the commodity — ranging from a diplomatic spat, to shady corporate conduct, to corruption and deforestation. Forest cleared to make way for palm oil plantation in Indonesia. Activists are worried that Indonesia&#8217;s biodiesel program will lead to wider deforestation for oil palm plantations as the government has estimated it will need to establish 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of new plantations. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. Indonesia’s biodiesel program   Since 2015, the Indonesian government has subsidized producers of palm oil-based biodiesel to ensure its pump price is competitive with conventional diesel. The subsidy is funded by tariffs on palm oil exports, but a temporary drop in the price of the commodity early this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a shortfall that’s forced the government to pony up $195 million from the state budget to cover the subsidy. That figure is only expected to swell over time as the government proceeds with a plan to gradually&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/top-indonesia-palm-oil-news-story-2020/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238329</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s biofuel bid threatens more deforestation for oil palm plantations</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Dec 2020 06:16:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/08/19040154/indonesia_20150570-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=238106</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Oil, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indonesian government program to phase out diesel for an alternative made from palm oil could spur massive deforestation for palm plantations spanning an area a fifth the size of Borneo. The biodiesel transition program, the world’s most ambitious, will require 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of new oil palm plantations, according [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — An Indonesian government program to phase out diesel for an alternative made from palm oil could spur massive deforestation for palm plantations spanning an area a fifth the size of Borneo. The biodiesel transition program, the world’s most ambitious, will require 15 million hectares (37 million acres) of new oil palm plantations, according to Arifin Tasrif, the minister for energy and mines. Speaking at a parliamentary hearing last month, he said that was how much new palm oil production would be needed to replace current oil consumption of a million barrels a day. A newly published study puts the figure of new plantations to supply the program at 9.3 million hectares (23 million acres). Although this is a lower projection than the ministry’s, it still represents an area two-thirds the size of Indonesia’s Java Island. The program is meant to both ease Indonesia’s dependence on crude oil imports and make the shift to so-called biofuel, which the government touts as a cleaner alternative to conventional fossil-fuel diesel. The government is rolling out the program in stages, blending progressively higher concentrations of palm oil-derived biodiesel into conventional diesel. The program is currently at the B30 stage, which means the diesel sold at the pump contains a 30% blend of palm oil-derived biodiesel. It’s expected to reach the B50 stage, a 50:50 blend, by 2025. But to do that, the total planted area of oil palms will have to be at least 22.7 million hectares (56 million acres), according to&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/12/indonesia-biofuel-deforestation-oil-palm-plantation-b30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-238106</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Meaningless certification’: Study makes the case against ‘sustainable’ palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Aug 2020 07:59:53 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/05/11160411/large-male-orangutan-in-Sumatra-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=233396</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil, Indonesian Forests, and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Biofuels, Certification, Conservation, Deforestation, Elephants, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forest Loss, Forests, Habitat, Habitat Degradation, Habitat Loss, Mammals, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Research, Sustainability, Threats To Rainforests, Tigers, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new study on certified oil palm plantations and their links to past deforestation has sparked a debate over whether they can be considered sustainable if they’re established on once-forested land. The study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, analyzed highly detailed satellite images from 1984, the oldest available, to 2020. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — A new study on certified oil palm plantations and their links to past deforestation has sparked a debate over whether they can be considered sustainable if they’re established on once-forested land. The study, published in the journal Science of the Total Environment, analyzed highly detailed satellite images from 1984, the oldest available, to 2020. It covered all 78 plantations in Indonesia and 173 in Malaysian Borneo that have been certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), the world’s largest association for ethical palm oil production. The researchers overlaid the maps of these certified plantations with the distribution ranges of endangered large mammals to see where they overlapped. They also calculated the extent of tropical forest that was replaced by certified palm oil production during that period. They found that some certified oil palm concessions and supply bases had indeed replaced the habitats of endangered mammals and biodiverse tropical forests of Borneo and Sumatra over the last few decades. “Moreover, we discovered that currently certified oil palm plantations are located in the 1990s endangered large mammals habitat such as rhinos, tigers, orangutans and elephants,” study co-author Roberto Cazzolla Gatti, an associate professor at Tomsk State University in Russia, told Mongabay. According to the study, about 75% of RSPO concessions and supply bases are located in areas that have been deforested and/or where endangered large mammals lived just during the last 30 years. It found that 49% of Sumatran and 99% of Bornean certified supply bases were completely covered by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/palm-oil-certification-sustainable-rspo-deforestation-habitat-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-233396</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia lavishes $195m subsidy on palm biodiesel producers over smallholders</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2020 05:37:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/01/02185941/riau_1716-495x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=232007</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Business, Climate Change, Coronavirus, Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, COVID-19, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Farming, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Subsidies, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Martamis says he’s worried about how he’ll pay for his daughter’s education once schools reopen. He’s an oil palm farmer from the village of Lubuk Mandarsah in Indonesia’s Jambi province, and before the COVID-19 pandemic he could expect to sell his palm fruit for 1,200 rupiah per kilogram, or about 9 U.S. cents. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Martamis says he’s worried about how he’ll pay for his daughter’s education once schools reopen. He’s an oil palm farmer from the village of Lubuk Mandarsah in Indonesia’s Jambi province, and before the COVID-19 pandemic he could expect to sell his palm fruit for 1,200 rupiah per kilogram, or about 9 U.S. cents. Now, he says, he can only get 700 rupiah (5 cents) a kilo. “Usually it’s above 1,000 rupiah, even 1,200 rupiah, but now the price has dropped to 700 rupiah ever since Jambi was declared as a ‘red zone’ [for COVID-19],” he tells Mongabay. “So our incomes have been drastically reduced.” At this rate, he’ll make a total income of just 1.85 million rupiah ($130) for the whole year. That’s just 5% of the annual minimum wage in Jambi. “I’m still able to put food on the table for now, but when my daughter starts junior high school next year, I don’t think it’s going to be enough,” Martamis says. “We farmers don’t have savings. Our only way out is to work at our neighbors’ plantations as laborers. That’s what’s happening in our village.” The social and travel restrictions imposed in response to the pandemic have hit Indonesia’s economy hard, and small oil palm farmers like Martamis have not been spared. Indonesia is the world’s top producer and exporter of palm oil, a commodity found in products ranging from toothpaste to snack foods to biodiesel. But while farmers like Martamis go into debt, skimp on&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/07/indonesia-subsidy-palm-oil-biodiesel-producers-smallholders-b30/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-232007</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Dodgy science and corporate concessions in Indonesia’s bid for clean palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Dec 2019 06:15:49 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/11/11011916/Puluhan-ribu-hektar-hutan-di-Sumut-sudah-dikuasi-korporasi-dan-merubahnya-jadi-kebun-sawit-Ayat-S-Karokaro-1200x800-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=225000</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Deforestation, Emission Reduction, Energy, Environment, Forest Destruction, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Reforestation, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has launched a campaign that government officials say should boost the reputation of the country’s palm oil industry, even as activists and experts warn it could make the industry even less sustainable. President Joko Widodo signed off on the initiative last month, roping in more than a dozen ministers and top officials [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia has launched a campaign that government officials say should boost the reputation of the country’s palm oil industry, even as activists and experts warn it could make the industry even less sustainable. President Joko Widodo signed off on the initiative last month, roping in more than a dozen ministers and top officials to coordinate the campaign. The plan is to improve data management within the palm oil industry, boost the capacity of farmers, resolve conflicts over farmland, and push for international recognition of the country’s homegrown sustainability certification standard. The initiative is the latest move by the government to shore up the palm oil industry in the world’s biggest producer of the commodity, which faces a growing global backlash from consumers and, increasingly, companies and other governments. In particular, the government has condemned what it calls a “negative campaign” to keep palm oil-based biodiesel out of the European renewable fuel market. The European Union is currently the No. 2 export market for Indonesian palm oil, but the bloc plans to phase out palm biofuel as a renewable energy source by 2030, on concerns that its production contributes to deforestation. Musdhalifah Machmud, the deputy for agriculture to Indonesia’s chief economics minister, acknowledged that the campaign was aimed at tackling negative perceptions of palm oil. She added that the effort was part of a wider move toward greater sustainability of the industry. A worker takes a chainsaw to an oil palm on an illegal plantation in Tenggulun. Image by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/12/indonesia-palm-oil-reputation-sustainability/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-225000</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Bring it on,’ EU MP says of trade fight over palm biofuel phase-out</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Oct 2019 00:36:03 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/09/30115422/Tebang-Sawit-Illegal3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=223414</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Forests]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belgium, Europe, European Union, and Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Carbon Emissions, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Environment, Fires, Forest Loss, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, International Trade, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[GLO-4060 QZA-16/0047.4, 2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BRUSSELS — The European Parliament will proceed with phasing out palm oil-based biofuel by 2030 despite threats of retaliatory action by Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest producers of the ubiquitous vegetable oil. The policy was adopted earlier this year to curb the use of crops that cause deforestation in transportation fuel, over concerns that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BRUSSELS — The European Parliament will proceed with phasing out palm oil-based biofuel by 2030 despite threats of retaliatory action by Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest producers of the ubiquitous vegetable oil. The policy was adopted earlier this year to curb the use of crops that cause deforestation in transportation fuel, over concerns that their production contributes to global carbon emissions and thus exacerbates climate change. But both Indonesia and Malaysia have warned of restricting European imports and other trade reprisals should the phase-out go ahead. Bas Eickhout, a Dutch member of the European Parliament, said he’s not worried that Indonesia and Malaysia will take their grievances to the World Trade Organization (WTO). “To be very honest, bring it on on WTO,” he told reporters at the European Parliament in Brussels. “We have very clear environmental concerns, very clear environmental reasons why we say this [palm oil-based biodiesel] can’t be labeled as renewable.” Eickhout said he’s confident the WTO would rule in favor of the EU’s meticulously planned palm biofuel phase-out. “I think if that goes through, Europe will not back track,” he said. “This is a great policy, and the only thing that can challenge it is of course WTO. But as I said, it’s so nuanced draft that we expect WTO will say that it’s allowed in WTO. You are allowed to do specific policies for environmental reasons. We expect WTO will let that happen.” Eickhout said the policy was aimed at preventing unsustainable palm oil from&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/10/eu-palm-oil-biofuel-indonesia-malaysia-phaseout-wto/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-223414</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia eyes palm oil export boost to China amid mounting U.S. trade war</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Aug 2019 07:12:13 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/07/10160816/indonesia_20151829-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=221529</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, East Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate Change, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1801-55636]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, is anticipating a boost in exports of the commodity to China, taking advantage of an opportunity opened up by the escalating trade war between Beijing and Washington. The move also presents Indonesia with a respite from its own trade woes, namely a planned phase-out of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, is anticipating a boost in exports of the commodity to China, taking advantage of an opportunity opened up by the escalating trade war between Beijing and Washington. The move also presents Indonesia with a respite from its own trade woes, namely a planned phase-out of palm oil from biofuel in the European Union, its second-biggest export market, and a likely increase in duties by India, its No. 1 export customer. Montty Girianna, the deputy for energy in the office of the coordinating minister for the economy, said Indonesia was always looking to expand the market for its crude palm oil (CPO), including in China, it’s third-largest market. “We’re the biggest CPO supplier. We can dictate the price. That’s the beauty of being the biggest supplier,” Montty said. But boosting exports to China will not mean clearing more forests to plant oil palms, Montty said. Instead, Indonesian producers will increase yields through better technology and seeds, rather than more acreage. There are currently 162,000 square kilometers (64,500 square miles) of palm oil plantations across Indonesia, Montty said. “If possible it will stay that way,” he said. “We’re prioritizing increasing the productivity by using oil palm seeds with good standard.” The statement comes after China’s commerce ministry announced Aug. 7 that it plans to remove palm, soybean and rapeseed oil from its import tariff quota management. The decision follows the ministry’s announcement that Chinese companies would stop importing U.S. agricultural products, in&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/08/indonesia-eyes-palm-oil-export-boost-to-china-amid-mounting-u-s-trade-war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-221529</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia calls on palm oil industry, obscured by secrecy, to remain opaque</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 May 2019 08:19:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/06/12110528/4-sabah_0801-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=218656</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate, Climate Change, Conflict, Corporate Social Responsibility, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Forest Loss, Forests, International Trade, Land Conflict, Land Grabbing, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Transparency, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2018-67916, G-1801-55636]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Environmental activists in Indonesia have denounced a recent call by the government to keep data about oil palm plantations out of the public’s reach. Citing reasons ranging from corporate secrecy to anti-competitive practices to national security, the government issued a letter May 6 to the country’s powerful palm oil lobby advising its member [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Environmental activists in Indonesia have denounced a recent call by the government to keep data about oil palm plantations out of the public’s reach. Citing reasons ranging from corporate secrecy to anti-competitive practices to national security, the government issued a letter May 6 to the country’s powerful palm oil lobby advising its member companies not to share their plantation data with other parties, including external consultants, NGOs, and multilateral and foreign agencies. The move away from transparency and toward greater opacity for an industry already widely criticized for a litany of problems — from deforestation to land grabbing to labor rights abuses — marks a setback in the pursuit for sustainability, said Asep Komarudin, a forest campaigner with Greenpeace Indonesia “While the more progressive parts of the industry are starting to try and clean up the palm oil sector, the government is actively blocking transparency efforts, destroying the chance for the palm oil industry to clean up its reputation and undermining any work by Indonesia to meet its climate targets,” he said Asep said the letter, which is a recommendation, might be misperceived by palm oil growers as a legal mandate to withhold their data, causing confusion for companies seeking to be certified under the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). One of the requirements for sustainability certification is to publish plantation maps on the RSPO website, but plantation boundaries are among the data that the government doesn’t want disclosed. “On the international level, some of these companies&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/indonesia-calls-on-palm-oil-industry-obscured-by-secrecy-to-remain-opaque/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-218656</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysia calls on Southeast Asia to back palm oil against ‘unfair’ claims</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 May 2019 11:24:10 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/09010120/Oil-palm-plantation-Indonesia-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=218316</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Singapore, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Apes, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate Change, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Endangered Species, Environment, Forest Loss, Forests, International Trade, Orangutans, Palm Oil, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, Tropical Deforestation, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — The Malaysian government has called on its neighbors to help defend the palm oil industry against what it deems a discriminative campaign by the European Union to stop recognizing the commodity as a biofuel ingredient. Teresa Kok, Malaysia’s minister of primary industries, said this past week that member states of the Association of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[SINGAPORE — The Malaysian government has called on its neighbors to help defend the palm oil industry against what it deems a discriminative campaign by the European Union to stop recognizing the commodity as a biofuel ingredient. Teresa Kok, Malaysia’s minister of primary industries, said this past week that member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), should support one another against outside threats to an industry as important to the region as palm oil. Malaysia is the world’s second-biggest producer of palm oil, behind Indonesia; together, the two countries supply more than 80 percent of the world’s palm oil, a commodity used in items ranging from toothpaste and coffee creamer, to cookies and biodiesel. “If the EU countries can stand united on assumptions of unsustainable production and consumption of palm oil and other forest based products, we as ASEAN should stand tall to fight against those unfair and discriminative judgments made by them,” Kok said in her May 2 speech at the Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources. Her statement marks the latest backlash by Malaysian and Indonesian officials against the European Union’s move to curb the use of crops that cause deforestation in transportation fuel, over concerns that their production contributes to global carbon emissions. The European Commission in March approved a measure to phase out palm oil-based biofuel by 2030. Teresa Kok, the Malaysian minister of primary industries, speaking during the sixth Singapore Dialogue on Sustainable World Resources. Image by the Singapore Institute of International&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/05/malaysia-calls-on-southeast-asia-to-back-palm-oil-against-unfair-claims/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-218316</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s threat to exit Paris accord over palm oil seen as cynical ploy</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Apr 2019 06:26:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/06/12110528/4-sabah_0801-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217244</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests, Indonesian Palm Oil, and Jokowi Commitments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Asia, European Union, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, carbon, Carbon Credits, Carbon Emissions, Carbon Market, Cattle, Climate, Climate Change, Deforestation, Dry Forests, Environment, Fires, forest degradation, Forest Destruction, Forests, Palm Oil, Pasture, Peatlands, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Ranching, Renewable Energy, Soy, Sustainability, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1801-55636, 2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Environmental activists have blasted threats by a senior Indonesian minister that the country will withdraw from the Paris climate accord over a European plan to phase out palm oil from renewable biofuels. The statements by Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs, who oversees the palm oil industry in the world’s biggest [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Environmental activists have blasted threats by a senior Indonesian minister that the country will withdraw from the Paris climate accord over a European plan to phase out palm oil from renewable biofuels. The statements by Luhut Pandjaitan, the coordinating minister for maritime affairs, who oversees the palm oil industry in the world’s biggest producer of the commodity, have been likened to the nationalist rhetoric employed by U.S. President Donald Trump to pull his country out of the agreement. “If Trump exited the Paris Agreement to defend the coal industry, Luhut is defending the palm oil industry to his last breath,” said Yuyun Harmono, a climate justice campaigner with the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). “Both are commodities that destroy the environment and exacerbate climate change. If Luhut is proud to be associated with Trump, then go ahead.” The war of words marks the latest escalation stemming from a decision by the European Union to phase out the use of palm oil in biofuels by 2030, over concerns that production of the crop, often on land cleared of rainforest, contributes to global carbon emissions and thus exacerbates climate change. Indonesia and Malaysia, which together supply 85 percent of the world’s palm oil, have threatened a host of retaliatory measures, including filing complaints with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and restricting imports of goods from the EU. The most drastic option on the table is Indonesia withdrawing from the landmark 2015 Paris Agreement. Indonesia has committed to reducing its&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/indonesias-threat-to-exit-paris-accord-over-palm-oil-seen-as-cynical-ploy/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217244</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Europe, in bid to phase out palm biofuel, leaves fans and foes dismayed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Mar 2019 12:59:06 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/12005717/aceh_0825-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216568</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil, Indonesian Forests, and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Europe, European Union, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Biodiversity, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Climate Change, Deforestation, Endangered Species, Energy, Environment, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Politics, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Renewable Energy, Soy, Threats To Rainforests, Trade, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1801-55636, 2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The European Commission has officially approved a measure to phase out palm oil-based biofuel by 2030. But while the move has angered major palm oil producers, it hasn’t entirely pleased environmental activists either. The so-called delegated act marks yet another step by the European Union (EU) to curb the use of crops that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — The European Commission has officially approved a measure to phase out palm oil-based biofuel by 2030. But while the move has angered major palm oil producers, it hasn’t entirely pleased environmental activists either. The so-called delegated act marks yet another step by the European Union (EU) to curb the use of crops that cause deforestation in transportation fuel, over concerns that their production contributes to global carbon emissions and thus exacerbates climate change. But the phase-out doesn’t mean a ban on palm oil in biofuels. EU member states will still be able to import and use palm oil-based biodiesel, but it will no longer be considered a renewable fuel or be eligible for the attendant subsidies. The process will also be gradual. Member states’ maximum share of palm oil-based biodiesel that can be counted toward EU renewable transport targets for national governments (and hence be eligible for subsidies) will be capped at 2019 levels until 2023. After that, it will be progressively phased out of renewable targets to zero percent by 2030. Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green member of the European Parliament, lauded the commission’s decision. “Burning food for fuel is nonsense and has a huge impact on climate change and biodiversity,” he said as quoted by Forbes. “Today&#8217;s decision sets the tone that Europeans want to shift away from unsustainable biofuels.” Fires engulf a palm oil plantation in Rokan Hilir district, Riau, Indonesia. Image by Zamzami/Mongabay Indonesia. Response from Indonesia and Malaysia Officials in Indonesia and Malaysia, which&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/europe-in-bid-to-phase-out-palm-biofuel-leaves-fans-and-foes-dismayed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216568</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Malaysia to ban oil palm expansion?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 Mar 2019 12:29:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/03/02124044/linus_kaltim_DJI_0025_head-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=216084</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Biofuels, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forests, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Land Use Change, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, Rainforests, and Sustainability]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Malaysia may ban further expansion of oil palm plantations in an effort to improve the oilseed&#8217;s reputation abroad, reports Bloomberg. In an interview Friday, Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok told Bloomberg that the prime minister&#8217;s cabinet will weigh a proposal to cap Malaysia&#8217;s palm oil estate at 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres), an [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Malaysia may ban further expansion of oil palm plantations in an effort to improve the oilseed&#8217;s reputation abroad, reports Bloomberg. In an interview Friday, Minister of Primary Industries Teresa Kok told Bloomberg that the prime minister&#8217;s cabinet will weigh a proposal to cap Malaysia&#8217;s palm oil estate at 6 million hectares (14.8 million acres), an area just 2.5 percent larger than currently planted. However the proposal would also need to win support from state governments, which often govern land use allocation. Kok said that Malaysia could continue to increase palm oil production despite the cap by improving yields of existing plantations. Conversion of rainforest for oil palm in Sabah, Malaysia. Photo by Rhett A. Butler. The proposed move comes in response to criticism over palm oil&#8217;s link to large-scale deforestation in Southeast Asia, an issue that has hurt palm oil&#8217;s uptake as a biofuel feedstock in Europe at a time when a global palm oil glut has cut prices to the lowest levels in more than a decade. The Malaysian and Indonesian governments have conducted major public relations and lobbying campaigns in support of palm oil, while also shoring up domestic demand via biofuels mandates, but haven&#8217;t been able overcome scientific studies that show the crop is a major driver of rainforest and peatlands conversion, and therefore a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions, undermining industry sustainability claims for palm oil-derived biodiesel. Environmentalists have also linked some palm oil companies to land grabbing, human rights abuses, poor labor standards, and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/03/malaysia-to-ban-oil-palm-expansion/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-216084</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesian candidates find common ground in support for palm oil</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Feb 2019 10:04:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/03210650/indonesia_20151928-forest-fragment-pal-oil.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=215621</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian Forests, Indonesian Palm Oil, and Jokowi Commitments]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Indonesia, Jakarta, Java, Kalimantan, Papua, Southeast Asia, Sulawesi, and Sumatra]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Conservation, Deforestation, Environment, Forests, Governance, Industrial Agriculture, Land Reform, Land Use Change, Mining, Palm Oil, Plantations, Politics, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[G-1801-55636, 2018-67916]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his challenger in this year’s election, Prabowo Subianto, have both vowed to increase the use of palm oil in biofuels to achieve energy self-sufficiency. The pledges came during the pair’s second presidential debate, held on Feb. 17, where the themes included the environment, energy and infrastructure. Nearly 200 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his challenger in this year’s election, Prabowo Subianto, have both vowed to increase the use of palm oil in biofuels to achieve energy self-sufficiency. The pledges came during the pair’s second presidential debate, held on Feb. 17, where the themes included the environment, energy and infrastructure. Nearly 200 million people are eligible to vote in the April 17 election, a repeat of the 2014 poll, when Widodo defeated Prabowo by a narrow margin. President Joko Widodo, left, and his running mate, Ma&#8217;ruf Amin. They face Prabowo Subianto, second right, and Sandiaga Uno in the April 17 presidential election. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Cabinet Secretariat. Under Widodo, Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, has pushed for greater use of palm oil feedstock in diesel. The diesel currently available at the pump contains a 20 percent blend of this biodiesel, and the government wants to increase it to 30 percent, or B30, by 2020. The move is aimed at increasing domestic consumption of palm oil, which is largely exported at present, as well as slashing fuel imports and thereby narrow the current-account gap. During the debate, Widodo said he was ultimately aiming for 100 percent biodiesel, or B100, from palm oil feedstock. “The plan is clear, so that we can reduce our dependence on imported oil,” he said. Prabowo also said he planned, if elected, to boost the use of palm oil in diesel, as well as develop ethanol fuels from palm&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/02/indonesian-candidates-find-common-ground-in-support-for-palm-oil/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-215621</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Biofuel boost threatens even greater deforestation in Indonesia, Malaysia: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Jan 2018 07:48:45 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hans Nicholas Jong]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/10/27171501/IMG_5495-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=203131</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil and Indonesian Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiesel, Bioenergy, Biofuels, Deforestation, Energy, Environment, Forestry, Forests, Governance, Green, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforest Destruction, Rainforests, Threats To Rainforests, and Tropical Forests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Global demand for biofuels containing palm oil looks set to grow sixfold by 2030, potentially driving the destruction of Southeast Asian rainforests the size of the Netherlands, a new report warns. Biofuel policies in place or proposed by Indonesia and China, as well as the aviation industry, could push their consumption alone to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JAKARTA — Global demand for biofuels containing palm oil looks set to grow sixfold by 2030, potentially driving the destruction of Southeast Asian rainforests the size of the Netherlands, a new report warns. Biofuel policies in place or proposed by Indonesia and China, as well as the aviation industry, could push their consumption alone to 45.6 million tons by 2030, according to the report commissioned by Rainforest Foundation Norway. “As we approach 2020, many biofuel policies are being reassessed and renegotiated,” report author Chris Malins, a biofuels policy expert, said in an email. “So this seemed the right time to look at what the best and worst scenarios were for the impact of biofuel policy on deforestation in Southeast Asia for the next decade.” A filling station selling biodiesel. Photo by Robert Couse-Baker/flickr. Biofuel policies Indonesia, the world’s biggest producer of palm oil, is currently pushing for increased domestic consumption of biodiesel that contains the vegetable oil. The policy calls for a minimum bio, or palm oil, content of 30 percent in all diesel sold in the country by 2020, up from the current requirement of 20 percent. This target is one of the most ambitious biodiesel-blending targets in the world. If achieved, Indonesia’s annual biodiesel consumption would rise to 18.6 million tons. China, meanwhile, has begun discussions with Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s second-biggest palm oil producer, to boost its own blending target to a minimum of 5 percent palm oil in biodiesel. That would increase China’s palm-based biodiesel&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/01/biofuel-boost-threatens-even-greater-deforestation-in-indonesia-malaysia-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-203131</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What happens when the soy and palm oil boom ends?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>21 Feb 2017 11:50:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/02/21114048/sabah_2580_palm_oil_fruit-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=193334</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Global Palm Oil]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Amazon, Brazil, China, India, and Indonesia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Agriculture, Biodiesel, Biofuels, Deforestation, Drivers Of Deforestation, Farming, Food, Forests, Interviews, Palm Oil, Plantations, Rainforests, and Soy]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Over the past thirty years demand and production of oils crops like oil palm and soybeans has boomed across the tropics thanks to rising incomes, macroeconomic changes and government policies, and substitution effects. This rapid expansion has in some places taken a heavy toll on native, wildlife-rich ecosystems—especially rainforests, wetlands, and savannas—while exacerbating conflicts over [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Over the past thirty years demand and production of oils crops like oil palm and soybeans has boomed across the tropics thanks to rising incomes, macroeconomic changes and government policies, and substitution effects. This rapid expansion has in some places taken a heavy toll on native, wildlife-rich ecosystems—especially rainforests, wetlands, and savannas—while exacerbating conflicts over land. As a result, this growth has at times perplexed and dismayed ecologists, environmentalists, and human rights advocates. However there are signs that the bonanza may slow as it evolves in response to changing conditions including slackening demand, higher transactions costs for securing land, and productivity gains, argues The Tropical Oil Crop Revolution, a new book by Stanford University researchers Derek Byerlee, Walter P. Falcon, and Rosamond L. Naylor. Published in October 2016 by Oxford University Press, The Tropical Oil Crop Revolution chronicles the rise of the tropical oil crops, evaluates the costs and benefits of the industry, and makes projections for what the authors call “the world&#8217;s most dynamic agricultural sector in recent decades.” Byerlee discussed the book and its findings during a February 2017 interview with Mongabay.com. AN INTERVIEW WITH DEREK BYERLEE Mongabay.com: What is your background and what led you to write this book? Derek Byerlee Derek Byerlee: I am an agricultural economist with a career in academia, international agricultural research and the World Bank where I directed the World Development Report 2008 on Agriculture. I then joined the Center on Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University where I worked&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/02/what-happens-when-the-soy-and-palm-oil-boom-ends/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-193334</doi>				</item>
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