Indonesians to be Affected by EU Palm Oil Policy

The European Union’s (EU) plan to prohibit crude palm oil (CPO) as a raw material for biofuel will affect about 16 million people, including small oil palm plantations and laborers, according to the Indonesia Oil Palm Labor Union Network (Japbusi), reported The Jakarta Post. The organization’s executive secretary, Nursanna Marpaung, further claimed that the EU’s policy would cause a large number of people to lose their jobs and trigger social and economic tension in many parts of the country.
   
The EU plan to phase out crude palm oil from biofuel by 2030 through the delegated act EU Directive 2018/2001, a derivative of its Renewable Energy Directive II (RED II). The bloc has argued that palm oil production had a high risk of causing deforestation.  

Indonesia, as the largest producer of the commodity, said the policy was discriminatory because other vegetable oils – like soybean, rapeseed or sunflower oils – that were produced in EU countries and the United States are more excessive in land use.