Investor Daily, 4 July 2018
Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi discussed the future of palm oil products in the European Union (EU) market with Dutch Foreign Minister Stephanus Abraham Blok during a bilateral meeting in Jakarta on Tuesday (July 3). During the meeting, Retno raised concerns about the approved draft of the trilogue due to its potential to discriminate against CPO. The EU renewable energy directive (RED II) states that the contribution of certain categories of biofuels, namely those with high indirect land-use change (ILUC) risk and for which a significant expansion of the production area into land with high carbon stock is observed, will be limited to the 2019 consumption levels. Retno said that the ILUC criteria only reflect the Europe’s own perspectives instead of ones that are globally acceptable.