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The Norwegian Parliament has voted to ban its biofuel industry from buying palm oil linked to deforestation.
Campaigners have praised the move, which will come into force in 2020, believing it can help save rainforests – and the orangutans which live in them – as well as fight against climate change.
The new policy says the Government should ‘formulate a comprehensive proposal for policies and taxes in the biofuels policy in order to exclude biofuels with high deforestation risk’.
It follows Norway’s use of palm oil in fuel reaching an all-time high in 2017.
‘Important decision’
“In 2017, 317 million liters of biodiesel – around 10 percent of the total diesel consumption in Norway – were based on palm oil. That is now to be slashed,” Nils Hermann Ranum, of Rainforest Foundation Norway, said in a statement.
“The decision represents an expansion, widening and strengthening, compared to already adopted policies. In 2017, the Norwegian Parliament voted in favor of a restriction on the use of palm oil fuels in public procurement
“The Norwegian parliament’s decision sets an important example to other countries and demonstrates the need for a serious reform of the world’s palm oil industry.”
On a wider level, the EU says it will phase out biofuels linked with deforestation – but not until 2030.
