Green Growth, Smart Growth: A New Approach to Economics, Innovation and the Environment by Ralf Fücks

Author:Ralf Fücks [Fücks, Ralf]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Business & Economics, Environmental Economics, Economic Policy
ISBN: 9781783084739
Google: rx6yCQAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 26080224
Publisher: Anthem Press
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Excursus: Palm Oil

Palm oil is extracted from the fruits of the tropical oil palm, which is mainly grown in Indonesia and Malaysia. Growing demand for cheap plant fats has sparked a genuine palm oil boom. The multifaceted raw material is now found in every other supermarket product, from lipsticks and frozen pizzas to toothpaste, detergent and chocolate bars. The implementation of palm oil in the manufacture of biofuels and as fuel for power plants has also contributed to rising demand. Production has doubled in the last decade, with a corresponding rise in the amount of land dedicated to growing oil palms—at the cost of the tropical rain forests of Southeast Asia. The environmental impact of this kind of raw material extraction is negative in various respects. In many cases tropical forests stand on peat soil that contains huge amounts of carbon. Vast quantities of CO2 are released as a result of fire clearing and the drying out of peat soil. Diverse vegetation is being replaced by monocultures that are intensively fertilized and treated with pesticides. Producers frequently run roughshod over the land rights of resident populations.

Nowadays there are various initiatives campaigning for greater sustainability in the production of palm oil. In 2004 the conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) initiated the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), which involves palm oil producers, retailers, consumer goods manufacturers and NGOs.10 The stated goal of the project is to hold producers and importers to minimum environmental and social standards: no clearing of old-growth forests; water, soil and forest protection; respect for the land rights of local communities; no child labor; support for peasant farmers; and independent inspections. The initiative has been criticized by other environmental and development organizations as a sham—the claim is that its criteria are too lax, there is no guarantee they will be adhered to and that the RSPO certificate merely provides an alibi for continued exploitation. The self-presentation of the multistakeholder initiative certainly seems excessively slick. There are no shortcuts when it comes to the arduous task of balancing environmental, social and economic interests. Import companies and consumer goods manufacturers in Europe can make an important contribution in this area by only introducing palm oil that satisfies verifiable environmental and social standards. Similarly, both the European Union and the German government must establish stricter criteria for the use of imported agricultural raw materials. Otherwise the EU’s proclaimed goal of fueling at least 10 percent of road traffic with renewable sources by 2020 will be a nonstarter.

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