The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Sean Kelly taking on big Palm Oil as EU drafts trade policy
IRELAND South MEP Sean Kelly is going head-to-head with lobbyists for one of the world’s biggest industries as he plays a leading role in the formulation of a crucial new trade policy within the EU Parliament.
Kelly is the EPP Group negotiator for the Renewable Energy Directive and also for the Free Trade Agreements with Indonesia and Malaysia, key roles as the Parliament and Council negotiate on the EU’s 2030 Renewable Energy Directive.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the world’s biggest palm-oil producing and exporting countries respectively, a cash crop leading to the devastation of rainforests and used in everything from biofuels to processed foods. The EU Parliament has voted to stop considering palm oil as a ‘renewable’ energy source from 2021 on, a move that has been welcomed by NGOs and farmers but fiercely opposed by the biofuels industry.
“We have voted to stop considering Palm Oil as renewable a strong mandate, and while the current formulation may be problematic from a lot of sides, the political message is clear: Parliament does not want to incentivise the worst-performing biofuels under the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework,” Mr Kelly said at a debate he hosted in Brussels last week on the issue. “We are now searching for ac- ceptable ways to address the sustainability concerns of certain biofuels and ensure that EU policies do not incentivise unsustainable practices elsewhere in the world, such as deforestation and peatland drainage.”
Sean Kelly suggested a possible solution would be to incentivise the better-performing biofuels produced by European tillage farmers which do not have the same sustainability concerns as biofuels such as palm oil: “To find a solution, I feel we should seek to take the financial support currently given to the worst-performing biofuels and allocate instead to the more sustainable biofuels, such as those produced by European farmers. Such biofuels generate high-value protein as a by-product that can be used for animal feed; at a time when we have a fodder shortage in Europe, this is surely a no-brainer,” he added.