Malaysia still backing biodiesel policy

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will maintain the status quo on its biodiesel mandate, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.

She said the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry assured the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) that it was all ears to the group’s proposal that Malaysia should retain its existing biodiesel mandate.

The association has highlighted why Malaysia should not reduce or stop its biodiesel mandate, as the biodiesel industry hardly consumed one million tonnes of palm oil annually as opposed to over 40 million tonnes used globally.

It said that any knee-jerk reaction to banning biofuels derived from vegetable oils would cause havoc in the global vegetable oil market.

Bernama reported Zuraida as saying in a statement yesterday that the ministry would also remain committed to implementing Malaysia’s National Biofuels Policy (NBP) which was rolled out in March 2006.

The NBP remains committed to reducing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rate in line with the country’s aspiration towards achieving its GHG emissions reduction target of 45% of gross domestic product by 2030.

It is also committed to expanding the use of downstream palm oil products and becoming an initiative to increase the income of oil palm smallholders through palm oil market price control mechanisms and reducing the country’s dependence on fossil fuels as one of the energy security initiatives, she said.

In a recent statement, MBA said Malaysia should not stop or reduce its biodiesel mandate.

“The situation for Malaysia is completely different. We are mainly an export-oriented market with a very small domestic market,” it said.

The MBA, in its statement, had urged the Malaysian Palm Oil Board to engage the biodiesel industry before taking any precipitative action.

“The palm oil industry as a whole, both upstream and downstream, would suffer from any such action, as it would result in the crude palm oil price crashing to a very low level. This, in turn, would affect over three million smallholders globally,” it had said.