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.
