Do European “Virgins” Want to Dictate Rules?

The European Union’s upcoming ban on imports linked to deforestation has been hailed as a “gold standard” in climate policy. It is viewed as a meaningful step to protect the world’s forests. And it my help remove planet-killing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

The law requires traders to trace the origins of a head-spinning variety of products – beef to books, chocolate and charcoal, lipstick and leather. To the European Union, the mandate, set to take effect in 2025, is a testament to the bloc’s role as a global leader on climate change.

Developing countries have expressed outrage – with Malaysia and Indonesia among the most vocal. Together, the two nations supply 85 per cent of the world’s palm oil, one of seven critical commodities covered by the European Union’s ban. And they maintain that the law puts their economies at risk.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org

In their eyes, rich, technologically advanced countries – and former colonial powers – are yet again dictating terms and changing the rules of trade when it suits them. The view fits with complaints from developing countries that the reigning international order neglects their concerns.

The palm oil dispute also encapsulates a central tension in the economics of climate change. Lower- and middle-income nations are being compelled to bear the cost of ruinous environmental shifts caused mostly by the world’s wealthiest nations.

“We’re not questioning the need to fight deforestation,” said Mr Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, Malaysia’s Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability of Malaysia. Countries that have deforested their own land for centuries, or are responsible for much of our deforestation, are unilaterally imposing conditions on the lower and middle income nations.

In addition, many government officials, industry representatives and farmers contend that the European Union’s rules are really a form of economic protectionism.  This is a way to shield European farmers who grow competing oilseed crops like rapeseed or soybeans.

The European Union’s law, which was passed in 2023, bars products that use palm oil and other commodities like rubber and wood that come from forestland that was converted to agriculture after 2020.

Smallholders – defined in Malaysia as farmers who own fewer than 40 hectares – grow 27 per cent of the country’s oil palms. The palm oil gold rush has helped to reduce rural poverty, build wealth from exports and create jobs. Roughly 4.5 million people in Malaysia and Indonesia work in the industry, according to the World Economic Forum. For a while the oil was even promoted as environmentally friendly, a “supercrop.” One hectare can produce four to 10 times as much oil as the same area of soybeans, rapeseed or sunflowers.

In Malaysia, government officials complain the European Union’s law ignores the licensing and deforestation rules that the country already has. Since Jan 1, 2020, all growers and businesses have been required to be certified by the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil board. The standards match many set by the European Union, although there is no requirement for geolocation mapping. The effort has had some success. In its annual 2022 survey, the World Resources Institute found that Malaysia was one of the few places where deforestation did not get worse. 

A new task force that includes the European Commission and government ministers from Malaysia and Indonesia is meeting to work on putting the deforestation rules into practice. Malaysian officials have asked the commission to accept the country’s own certification system, and to exempt smallholders from the law. Still, the perception that European powers are dictating to their governments stings.

That’s what imperialists do – destroy their country and resources including forests while others pay for their profligation. For over 200 years, the Industrial Revolution in the West didn’t have rules on carbon emissions. If they had they would not become developed countries. Today, they want to play the righteous “virgin” demanding others not be involved in any promiscuous activity.

Reference:

Can Europe save forests without killing jobs in Malaysia? The Straits Times, 14 March 2024