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Prime Minster Jens Stoltenberg and his Labour Party has disregarded
opposition from coalition partners as well as condemnation from the
opposition parties, and it is now clear that biodiesel will no longer
be exempt from road tax.
Biodiesel, an environmentally friendly fuel, has for this reason
been excempt from the road tax, but the Labour Party now says biodiesel
must be taxed on level with other fuels. This tax is today NOK 3.40,
and if added, this will make biodiesel more expensive than ordinary
diesel fuel.
Newly
agreed EU legislation on biofuels and fuel quality are highly unlikely
to reduce CO2 emissions from transport fuel used in Europe. T&E and
other environmental organisations are proposing substantial changes, in
particular to address the environmental impact of indirect land use
change (ILUC) caused by increased biofuel production. BERLIN, Nov 16 (Bernama) -- German stakeholders maintain palm oil is a good product and want more publicity on its positive attributes, says Malaysian Palm Oil Council (MPOC) chairman Datuk Lee Yeow Chor.
He said the industry players had voiced out complaints during a roundtable discussion held with visiting Malaysian officials that they were being targeted by the non-governmental organisations (NGOs) on the quality of palm oil.
"They want us to have better communication on the strength of palm oil. To portray the image of palm oil as a sustainably produced oil," he told Bernama here over the weekend.
Lee told the stakeholders that the MPOC office in Brussels would provide the support as well as information and materials needed to counter the false allegations.
He explained that there was no deforestation for palm oil as the way forward now was to increase production by way of productivity yield.
Lee was part of the 20-member delegation led by Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Tan Sri Bernard Dompok on a working visit to Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium from Nov 10 to 21.
In Berlin, members had the opportunity to visit a power plant using palm oil in cooperation with Vattenfall Europe.
The standalone combined heat and power plant of 450 kilowatt hours had been receving palm oil as feedstock on a weekly basis from the IOI Group refinery in Rotterdam.
Lee, who is also executive director of IOI Corp, said the plant was running on coal, natural gas as well as 10 per cent palm oil.
"However, they envisaged to use more palm oil. Palm oil is better than rapeseed for power generation as it produces less residue inside the engines," he said.
The Germans have not only shown that palm oil can run a power plant but also demonstrated a car which had a modified engine to run on palm diesel and petroleum.
According to Lee, the private owner of the car has been using palm diesel for three years now and did not encounter any problem.
In his recent address during a luncheon with German parliamentarians, Lee said Germany had been a major buyer of palm oil for biofuel, especially for transport and generating energy.
He said Germany was also seeking ways to ease the industrial impact on the environment.
However, Lee said Europe's renewable energy directive, which was supposed to support renewable energy, had been abused by the green groups, from NGOs down to the farmers, to block competition from foreign produce
The new directive, adopted in April 2009 and entering into force in December 2010, further develops the European legislative framework, setting new mandatory national targets for renewable energy.
Lee said palm oil is an efficient vegetable oil crop which is six to 10 times more productive than other oil crops, but it is being curtailed due to trade and other barriers.
He said developing nations needed more market access for their palm oil products.
Lee said should palm oil be taken away from the trade equation, the world would be scrambling for more oil which in turn would see more land being open up for production by other oil crops to fill up the gap left by palm oil.
"This defeats all purpose of keeping the world green," he said. -- BERNAMA
SHO LC
2. http://www.btimes.com.my/Current_News/BTIMES/articles/20091116010411/Article/
How palm oil helps feed an increasingly hungry world
Published: 2009/11/16
INDONESIA’S 7.1 million hectares (ha) of oil palm plantation’s current average oil yield of 2.8 tonnes per ha per year is set to surpass the 3-tonne mark by 2015, as trees mature and bear more fruits, says Indonesian Palm Oil Commission (Ipoc) executive chairperson Dr Rosediana Suharto.
“By 2015, the average oil yield at matured plantations should surpass 4 tonnes per ha per year as more young trees reach their prime fruit bearing age,” she told Business Times at the International Palm Oil Congress (PIPOC) 2009 in Kuala Lumpur last week.
“Big planters have their own replanting schedule.
Since 2008, however, we’ve extended a helping hand to smallholders via the revitalisation programme.
We want to increase our national average oil yield,” she said.
Ipoc collaborates with local commercial banks to facilitate cheaper loans to smallholders to replant their trees.
High yielding seeds are sourced from the Indonesia Oil Palm Research Institute (Iopri), which contracts out hybrid seed breeding to 11 producers.
“Some of the Malaysian oil palm investors also have gentlemen agreements to supply high yielding seeds to smallholders within their plasma schemes,” she added.
Under the plasma scheme, the Indonesian government requires foreign investors to set aside 20 per cent of land to nurture smallholders in oil palm planting.
While not all Malaysian investors are registered with Ipoc, Rosediana estimates that they operate 1.1 million ha of oil palm plantation there.
On this year’s palm oil output, Rosediana estimates it to be some 20 million tonnes, rising to 21 million tonnes in 2010, barring the occasional El Nino drought.
The United Nations Copenhagen Climate Summit, scheduled to start next month, will see 192 countries meet to set targets on carbon emissions.
As heads of states from around the world prepare for the summit, Amsterdam-based Greenpeace stepped up its campaign for a forest moratorium in Indonesia.
Without providing data that can be verified, Greenpeace alleged destruction of Indonesia’s peatland forests alone accounts for 4 per cent of global annual emissions and placed the country third biggest polluter, after the US and China.
Is Greenpeace really a green group? Does it plant trees?
Its 2007 annual report shows it received an annual
contribution of e212 million (RM1.07 billion) and the money was spent on propaganda.
About e10 million (RM50.7 million) was used for “forest campaign” but not a single cent went to tree planting.
It organises theatrical demonstrations and dangerous publicity stunts that sometimes end up causing grevious bodily harm and property damage.
In the last few years, Greenpeace’s fleet of ships with fancy names like “Rainbow Warrior” and “Esperanza” have terrorised palm oil tankers at seaports in Indonesia and New Zealand.
As the Copenhagen Summit draws near, it has become apparent that Greenpeace, Wetlands International, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) are political extensions of the ruling majority in the European Union that assumes changes in tropical forest aggravates global warming.
Oil palm planting has helped reduce poverty in developing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
In balancing economics and ecologics, Rosediana noted these Europe-based environmental group tends to negate agriculture’s socio-economic contribution to the people of developing nations.
At the PIPOC 2009 evening forum on “Palm Oil: Balancing Ecologics with Economics”, United Plantations Bhd executive director and vice chairman Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen made a poignant statement before an audience of more than 1,000 people.
“There is nothing like poverty and hunger that hastens environmental degradation.
Conservation means responsible development as much as it means protection.
“Today there are more than 1.4 billion people living on less than US$1.25 (RM4.22 ) per day.
Whatever strategies these enviromental activists pursue to save Brazil or Borneo’s biodiversity must first offer ways for its residents to improve their lives,” he said.
International banks and funding institutions need to change their way of thinking about this.
Better health, better education, better economic conditions — that will help to protect the environment.
“Very often we speak of the
3-P principle of People-Planet-Profit.
Lets us not forget the basic needs of the people ...
the right to clean water, electricity, proper housing, healthcare and education,” he said.
Bek-Nielsen then referred to the latest United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, which shows there are now more than one billion starving people in the world.
After gains in the fight against hunger in the 1980s and early 1990s, the number of undernourished people started to climb in 1995.
Hunger now affects a record of 1.02 billion people globally, or one in six.
Among chief causes are financial meltdown, high food prices, drought and civil wars.
FAO director-general Jacques Diouf was reported as saying that in the fight against hunger, the focus should be on increasing food production.
“It’s common sense that agriculture should be given priority but ...
the opposite has happened,” he said.
Falling agricultural investment in developing countries over the last decade has lead to rising hunger worldwide.
Arable land for agriculture stays the same but the world’s population continue to grow.
Today, it has surpassed 6.5 billion people.
Going forward, it is inevitable that oil palm trees, with its high oil yield, offers a sustainable solution to help feed the world.
Farmers in temperate countries have a choice of planting sunflower for vegetable oil or wheat for flour.
With more global consumption of palm oil, more land can be free from the less efficient-yielding sunflower, to plant wheat to ensure enough global supply of bread and noodles.
Ipoc collaborates with local commercial banks to facilitate cheaper loans to smallholders to replant their trees.
High yielding seeds are sourced from the Indonesia Oil Palm Research Institute (Iopri), which contracts out hybrid seed breeding to 11 producers.
“Some of the Malaysian oil palm investors also have gentlemen agreements to supply high yielding seeds to smallholders within their plasma schemes,” she added.
Under the plasma scheme, the Indonesian government requires foreign investors to set aside 20 per cent of land to nurture smallholders in oil palm planting.
While not all Malaysian investors are registered with Ipoc, Rosediana estimates that they operate 1.1 million ha of oil palm plantation there.
On this year’s palm oil output, Rosediana estimates it to be some 20 million tonnes, rising to 21 million tonnes in 2010, barring the occasional El Nino drought.
The United Nations Copenhagen Climate Summit, scheduled to start next month, will see 192 countries meet to set targets on carbon emissions.
As heads of states from around the world prepare for the summit, Amsterdam-based Greenpeace stepped up its campaign for a forest moratorium in Indonesia.
Without providing data that can be verified, Greenpeace alleged destruction of Indonesia’s peatland forests alone accounts for 4 per cent of global annual emissions and placed the country third biggest polluter, after the US and China.
Is Greenpeace really a green group? Does it plant trees?
Its 2007 annual report shows it received an annual
contribution of e212 million (RM1.07 billion) and the money was spent on propaganda.
About e10 million (RM50.7 million) was used for “forest campaign” but not a single cent went to tree planting.
It organises theatrical demonstrations and dangerous publicity stunts that sometimes end up causing grevious bodily harm and property damage.
In the last few years, Greenpeace’s fleet of ships with fancy names like “Rainbow Warrior” and “Esperanza” have terrorised palm oil tankers at seaports in Indonesia and New Zealand.
As the Copenhagen Summit draws near, it has become apparent that Greenpeace, Wetlands International, Friends of the Earth (FOE) and World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) are political extensions of the ruling majority in the European Union that assumes changes in tropical forest aggravates global warming.
Oil palm planting has helped reduce poverty in developing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
In balancing economics and ecologics, Rosediana noted these Europe-based environmental group tends to negate agriculture’s socio-economic contribution to the people of developing nations.
At the PIPOC 2009 evening forum on “Palm Oil: Balancing Ecologics with Economics”, United Plantations Bhd executive director and vice chairman Datuk Carl Bek-Nielsen made a poignant statement before an audience of more than 1,000 people.
“There is nothing like poverty and hunger that hastens environmental degradation.
Conservation means responsible development as much as it means protection.
“Today there are more than 1.4 billion people living on less than US$1.25 (RM4.22 ) per day.
Whatever strategies these enviromental activists pursue to save Brazil or Borneo’s biodiversity must first offer ways for its residents to improve their lives,” he said.
International banks and funding institutions need to change their way of thinking about this.
Better health, better education, better economic conditions — that will help to protect the environment.
“Very often we speak of the
3-P principle of People-Planet-Profit.
Lets us not forget the basic needs of the people ...
the right to clean water, electricity, proper housing, healthcare and education,” he said.
Bek-Nielsen then referred to the latest United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) report, which shows there are now more than one billion starving people in the world.
After gains in the fight against hunger in the 1980s and early 1990s, the number of undernourished people started to climb in 1995.
Hunger now affects a record of 1.02 billion people globally, or one in six.
Among chief causes are financial meltdown, high food prices, drought and civil wars.
FAO director-general Jacques Diouf was reported as saying that in the fight against hunger, the focus should be on increasing food production.
“It’s common sense that agriculture should be given priority but ...
the opposite has happened,” he said.
Falling agricultural investment in developing countries over the last decade has lead to rising hunger worldwide.
Arable land for agriculture stays the same but the world’s population continue to grow.
Today, it has surpassed 6.5 billion people.
Going forward, it is inevitable that oil palm trees, with its high oil yield, offers a sustainable solution to help feed the world.
Farmers in temperate countries have a choice of planting sunflower for vegetable oil or wheat for flour.
With more global consumption of palm oil, more land can be free from the less efficient-yielding sunflower, to plant wheat to ensure enough global supply of bread and noodles.
3. http://biz.thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/14/business/5110016&sec=business
Saturday November 14, 2009
MPOC chief:Give palm oil due recognition
BERLIN: Palm oil should be duly recognised instead of having its exports curtailed, according to Malaysian Palm Oil Council chief executive officer Tan Sri Dr Yusof Basiron.
He said the fact that Malaysia had kept its permanent forest for biodiversity and not opened new areas for oil palm cultivation had caused the country to forgo the revenue it could generate from the commodity.
In stating his views during the Forum on Sustainability of Palm Oil here Thursday, Yusof said Malaysia had pledged under the Rio Summit to commit over 50% of its land under forest, the balance to agriculture and industrial purposes.
“If 22% of the agriculture portion are tree crops, then 77% of Malaysia is under tree cover, therefore the country is a net carbon sink,” he said.
“We are also able to brief the world that we have enough forest to provide biodiversity. By maintaining this, we had 33% less revenue that we had to forego. So this is a great sacrifice that should be recognised,” he added.
Malaysian Palm Oil Board chairman Datuk Sabri Ahmad contended that much of the land for oil palm cultivation came not from the clearing of permanent forest but as a result of the conversion from rubber plantations.
For the future, he said the sustainable industry was looking at increasing its tonnage following the scarcity of land. — Bernama
4. http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/bnm/20091113/tbs-forum-sustainability-ceeeaba.html
BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF PALM OIL WOES
BERLIN, Nov 13 (Bernama) -- Except for the Orangutan and Penan being mentioned in passing once, the Forum on the Sustainability of Palm Oil held here, saw renewed interest and a better understanding of palm oil's standing in the very competitive oilseed world.
The forum, hosted by the Konrad Adenaur Stiftung Foundation, saw full attendance by a German audience who held on to their own views while listening attentively to panel discussions.
The panellists at the forum included the Parliamentary Secretary of Germany's Federal Ministry of Environment, Ursula Heinen-Esser, Malaysia's Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Markus Kurdziel from GTZ.
Among the views from the floor during the question and answer session was that, Europe should stop telling others what to do and that nobody wants to deforest a rainforest for fun but for development as well as how palm oil is not just a product but a resource for feeding purposes.
Dompok, when asked as to what Malaysia's contribution to the Copenhagen climate talks this December would be, said no country had been willing to keep over 50 percent of its land under forest cover.
"Malaysia is doing just that and this is its largest contribution to the world. Perhaps, we should be paid for keeping this part of our world green," he said.
The Minister said the palm oil industry had strived to meet universally accepted standards and deserved better treatment.
"In fact, the industry is gearing itself towards producing better yields without putting a strain on the forest reserve," he added.
As to how Malaysia would like to be compensated for promoting sustainable production, he said it needed the market to buy the certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
"We produce one million tonnes of CSPO and 150,000 hectares of our oil palm is sustainably managed. But the market doesn't take this. They are buying the other cheaper oils. They do not want a premium," he highlighted.
Meanwhile, Heinen-Esser said it would be an obstacle to trade if regulations (towards production) are strict but farmers also had to fulfil some requirements.
"For example, we have said "no", to the introduction of subsidies if they do not apply the rules on stability. We have a responsibility to our world.
"The same goes if palm oil.If not produced sustainably, then it would not be promoted by the German taxpayers," she added. -- BERNAMA
SHO AS
5. http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=68824
The forum, hosted by the Konrad Adenaur Stiftung Foundation, saw full attendance by a German audience who held on to their own views while listening attentively to panel discussions.
The panellists at the forum included the Parliamentary Secretary of Germany's Federal Ministry of Environment, Ursula Heinen-Esser, Malaysia's Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities, Tan Sri Bernard Dompok and Markus Kurdziel from GTZ.
Among the views from the floor during the question and answer session was that, Europe should stop telling others what to do and that nobody wants to deforest a rainforest for fun but for development as well as how palm oil is not just a product but a resource for feeding purposes.
Dompok, when asked as to what Malaysia's contribution to the Copenhagen climate talks this December would be, said no country had been willing to keep over 50 percent of its land under forest cover.
"Malaysia is doing just that and this is its largest contribution to the world. Perhaps, we should be paid for keeping this part of our world green," he said.
The Minister said the palm oil industry had strived to meet universally accepted standards and deserved better treatment.
"In fact, the industry is gearing itself towards producing better yields without putting a strain on the forest reserve," he added.
As to how Malaysia would like to be compensated for promoting sustainable production, he said it needed the market to buy the certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO).
"We produce one million tonnes of CSPO and 150,000 hectares of our oil palm is sustainably managed. But the market doesn't take this. They are buying the other cheaper oils. They do not want a premium," he highlighted.
Meanwhile, Heinen-Esser said it would be an obstacle to trade if regulations (towards production) are strict but farmers also had to fulfil some requirements.
"For example, we have said "no", to the introduction of subsidies if they do not apply the rules on stability. We have a responsibility to our world.
"The same goes if palm oil.If not produced sustainably, then it would not be promoted by the German taxpayers," she added. -- BERNAMA
SHO AS
5. http://www.dailyexpress.com.my/news.cfm?NewsID=68824
Rebates for 20 oil palm smallholders
|
Published on: Friday, November 13, 2009 |
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Musa Aman said the incentive under the Oil Sawit Assistance Scheme is to defray losses the smallholders incurred during the months of October, November and December last year due to low price of the commodity.
"The Relief Incentive is a one-off cash payment of RM50 per tonne during the three months," he said at the launching of the scheme at Wisma Kewangan.
According to him, the one-off payment is limited to a maximum area of 6.07ha or 15 acres per smallholder whose crop is between four and 25 years.
Based on an estimated average yield of 1.5 tonnes a month, he said the incentive payment per hectare is RM75 a month or RM225 for a period of three months.
So, if the smallholder has 6.07ha, he is qualified to receive incentive of RM1,366.75 at the maximum rate, he said. The Government allocated RM15 million for this purpose.
"We hope the relief incentive will be able to reduce the burden of the smallholders, particularly to defray the cost of oil palm production," he said, and urged all smallholders to register at the nearest agriculture offices.
He said the sudden drop in the price of Crude Palm Oil (CPO) from RM3,500 per tonne to RM1,400 end of last year caused a huge impact on oil palm smallholders in Sabah.
During the period, smallholders were unable to sell their fresh fruit bunches (FFBs) and this resulted in their income dropping.
He said the increase in agriculture input prices, especially fertiliser, only compounded the smallholders misery.
Hence, as a caring and responsible government, he said a Special Task Force Committee chaired by the Finance Ministry was set up to form the Sawit Assistance Scheme and the Flexible Loan Scheme with funds of RM50 million from the State Government.
"The Sawit Assistance Scheme is handled by the Agriculture Department, the initial approach was that payment is based on the floor price of RM250 per tonne to smallholders that have acreage less than 6.07ha or 15 acre," he said.
Of the 11,018 sawit smallholders involving 40,902ha registered in 2008 with the Malaysia Palm Oil Board (MPOB), Musa said only 727 smallholders involving 3,880ha came forward to register with the Agriculture Department to take advantage of the scheme.
The low number was due to the oil palm market recovery where the price is more than the floor price of RM250 per tonne. At that time, the smallholders were no longer facing problems in selling the FFB.
"Hence, no payment was made to smallholders who registered with the scheme," he said. However, for the sake of the smallholders welfare, the Sawit Assistance Scheme was reviewed.
With that, he said the State Government introduced the Relief Incentive payment of RM50 per tonne to qualified oil palm smallholders.
To expedite channelling of government assistance, Musa said the smallholders in each district are encouraged to form an association or organisation as channel between them and the Government.
"The Government is always willing to listen and will strive to consider their needs so as to develop the agriculture sector to be more competitive," he said.
[Ends]
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We can say quite confidently that there is a solid benefit from investing in protected areas
Good to have the 'blackwashing' term as well so that concepts can be summed up more quickly.
And yes, although I know Greenpeace and others are working to support conservation, have never been a fan of some of their tactics. It (blackwashing!) gets attention to an issue, but often without providing the full picture/all sides of the issue. Which then leaves the whole matter open to criticism and for being chicken little and all that.
The whole 'orangutans will be extinct in ten years' statement has been going around for, I don't know, fifteen plus years (+/-).
(Although, let's give credit where it's due - things could/would be a lot worse if conservation and government bodies were not doing all that they are doing. {on that note it could also be said that conservation and government bodies also need to accept some of the 'blame' for things being quite bad - which, although yes there still remains a fairly large population of orangutans in Borneo, they are still classified as an endangered species, and the Sumatran orangutan a critically endangered species. So, we do need to call attention to the issue, urgently, but we need to do it in a measured manner}).
So what's been said here really puts it in perspective.
Excellent.