Indonesia, not the EU, needs to make its palm oil sustainable

Only seven of the top ten suppliers of Indonesian palm oil to China have NDPE policies, as of January 2021, according to a report by sustainability analysts Chain Reaction Research. The report found refiners without an NDPE policy, or those lagging in their implementation of such policies, accounted for at least 12% of Indonesian palm oil supplies to China.

China Dialogue

The majority of global forest loss is caused by land clearance for six commodities: cattle, timber, palm oil, soy, cocoa and coffee.

In response, the European Union published a draft regulation in November 2021 designed to minimise Europe’s consumption of “deforestation-risk” products.

While legal NGO ClientEarth called the proposal a “leap forward in global environmental governance”, the governments of producer countries say it shifts the burden of ensuring that commodities are deforestation-free from wealthy consumers to poorer farmers.

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