12
Nov 2008 - Rotterdam, NL: The arrival of
the first certified sustainable palm oil
shipment in Europe opens up possibilities
for palm oil users to move away from subsidising
forest destruction and social disruption
from expanding palm oil plantations.
The shipment, from south-east
Asia, is of palm oil certified as compliant
with the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm
Oil (RSPO) Principles and Criteria, a set
of standards that ensure that palm oil is
produced in a socially and environmentally
responsible way.
As a founding member
of the RSPO, WWF has worked since 2002 with
a wide range of stakeholders to ensure that
the RSPO standards contain robust social
and environmental criteria, including a
prohibition on the conversion of valuable
forests.
“The arrival of RSPO
certified palm oil in Europe is an important
milestone,” said Rodney Taylor, Director
of WWF International’s Forest Programme.
“With the RSPO’s certification system up
and running, companies now have the means
to buy responsibly.”
Over 28 million tonnes
of palm oil are produced worldwide and it
is used in a wide variety of foods including
margarine, cooking oil, crisps, cakes, biscuits
and pastry. It is also found in cosmetics,
soaps, shampoos and detergents.
However oil palm plantations
have often imposed environmental and social
costs due to loss of habitat important to
threatened and endangered species and indiscriminate
forest clearing which contributes to climate
change.
The RSPO brings together
oil palm growers, oil processors, food companies,
retailers, NGOs and investors to help ensure
that no rainforest areas are sacrificed
for new palm oil plantations, that all plantations
minimize their environmental impacts and
that basic rights of local peoples and plantation
workers are fully respected.
Several European companies,
including Unilever, Sainsbury’s and Albert
Heijn, have already made strong public commitments
to buy certified sustainable palm oil.
Many more companies
need to do the same. WWF calls on retailers
and manufacturers to get behind the RSPO
by making concrete, timebound plans to shift
their palm oil purchases to 100 per cent
certified.
While welcoming the
shipment, WWF also believes that the RSPO
needs to tighten and strengthen its systems,
and will be encouraging such action at the
November annual meeting of the body.
RSPO membership is open
to producers who are not certified. While
its Code of Conduct encourages member producers
to pursue certification, the RSPO lacks
any real checks on the practices of these
uncertified members.
Stakeholders do not
always appreciate the distinction between
a company’s membership of the RSPO and the
certification of individual plantations.
This places the RSPO’s
credibility at risk, especially given the
recent Greenpeace reports alleging that
several RSPO members are engaged in practices
prohibited by the RSPO criteria for socially
and environmentally responsible production
of palm oil.
“The RSPO should fully
investigate allegations of misconduct against
its members,” said Taylor. “The RSPO can
maintain its credibility by refusing to
provide any form of cover for a company
that violates the RSPO sustainability criteria.”
+ More
EU needs carbon-free
energy policy by mid-century, says WWF
13 Nov 2008 - Brussels,
Belgium - The European Commission released
today an ‘Energy security and solidarity
action plan’ which addresses some of the
gaps in the present EU climate and energy
policy, such as the need to strengthen energy
efficiency and ease grid access for renewable
energies.
Yet, WWF noted major
contradictions among suggested policies,
lack of ambition and a Christmas tree of
actions with little relevance for the environmental
and economic objectives outlined in the
proposals. For one, no mandatory target
for energy efficiency has been included
in the package.
Energy efficiency is
the most immediate and cost-effective solution
to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, ensure
resilience to economic crisis and improve
security of energy supply in Europe. Despite
this, it remains the ‘Cinderella’ in the
European Union energy policy.
“Proposed measures fail
in ambition as they do not include a mandatory
energy saving target of 20 per cent by 2020
for the European Union - a key move to reduce
consumers energy bill, boost innovation,
facilitate the achievement of the EU’s greenhouse
gas emissions reduction targets and support
a strong EU performance at international
climate negotiations,” says Mariangiola
Fabbri, Energy Policy Officer at WWF.
As Europe’s buildings
account for 40 per cent of EU final energy
use, WWF sees the improvement of the Energy
Performance of Buildings Directive as a
priority and an opportunity not to be missed
to strengthen EU’s climate and energy goals.
“EU countries should
have been obliged to have stricter standards
for both existing and new buildings by 2015.
We need to shift buildings from being energy
wasters to climate savers,” adds Mariangiola
Fabbri.
On a positive note,
WWF is pleased to see that the EU intends
to embark on the ‘Renewable energy supergrid’,
an innovative electricity highway to connect
solar power from Southern Europe and North
Africa, offshore wind power produced in
the Atlantic and other renewable energy
sources from the mainland. WWF, however,
is concerned that continuous focus on fossil
fuels might undermine this project.
“The renewable energy
supergrid must become a priority as it has
the potential to provide renewable electricity
to all European citizens and make the European
energy sector carbon-free in the decades
to come”, said Dr Stephan Singer, WWF’s
Global Energy Policy Director.
“It is disappointing,
though, to see new investments for infrastructures
that keep Europe dependent on oil, gas and
other conventional fuels which counteract
the benefit of renewable energy.”
WWF urges the European
Parliament and the Council of Ministers
to strengthen the laws and come to an agreement
before the EU elections, in June 2009.
Stephan Singer, Global Energy Policy Director
at WWF
Mariangiola Fabbri, Energy Policy Officer
at WWF
