Indonesia says it is “disappointed” with the European Parliament’s decision to approve the EU bill on clean energy, which will limit the use of palm oil, saying many in Indonesia still rely on palm oil for their livelihood.
“We are disappointed with the decision; we view it as discriminative,” Foreign Affairs Minister Retno LP Marsudi said, as quoted by The Jakarta Post.
The bill, which still needs to be consulted with the European Commission before it is implemented, contains a plan to limit the use of biofuels made from food and feed crops to only seven percent of all transportation fuels.
Minister Retno said that her ministry, along with the Trade Ministry, will take the matter to the European Council and European Commission, to whom she will show data about the Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO) program and also explain how palm oil plantations have helped millions of Indonesians escape poverty.
“The ISPO is one of Indonesia’s ways to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). That is what [the EU] does not see. We are talking about the lives of millions of people who depend on oil palm plantations for their living,” she said.
Photo courtesy of Sanjit Das, Bloomberg News
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