[The Jakarta Globe] Copenhagen. Indonesian delegates on Wednesday night promoted the country’s palm oil industry as sustainable at the UN climate talks, in the wake of a recently-published Greenpeace report accusing Indonesia’s largest palm oil producer of deception and illegal

practices.

Environment Minister Gusti Muhammad Hatta said Indonesia would cut its emissions 9.6 percent by making palm oil plantations more sustainable. That is a sizable chunk of its much-lauded recent commitment to slash emissions by 26 percent before 2020.

A 2009 decree on environmental protection would use law enforcement and improved technology and management to ensure the “development of oil palm will be sustainable and will not harm efforts in anticipating climate change, and will reduce carbon dioxide,” Hatta said at a press conference.

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[The Jakarta Globe] The volume of crude palm oil exports to India is expected to rise by 10 percent next year, thanks to the Asean-India Free Trade Agreement, according to a commerce promotion body.

Under the deal, which is due to be signed at this week’s Asean Economic Ministerial Meeting in Bangkok, India is required to gradually cut its import duty on CPO between 2010 and 2019, from 80 percent at present to 37.5 percent. In the case of refined palm oil, the tariff is to be cut from 90 percent to 45 percent.

Derom Bangun, vice president of the Indonesian Palm Oil Board, said that lower import duties would give Indonesia a chance to significantly grow its CPO exports to India as palm oil became more competitive with other vegetable oils, like soybean oil.

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