Palm oil is everywhere, even in your car!

We are tricked into filling up our cars with palm oil biodiesel. Even worse, drivers are the top consumers of palm oil in Europe.

Half of the palm oil imported to Europe is transformed into biodiesel. Hadn’t you heard? That’s normal, companies like Total, Shell, and BP who use palm oil in their diesel don’t want you to know that they destroy rainforests to power your car.

Most European biofuel is made using virgin vegetable oil, and cheap and dirty palm oil is an industry favourite. While fuel companies make billions in profits, palm oil deforestation is destroying pristine rainforest and carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia and Malaysia, pushing orangutans and other species to extinction.

Earlier this year the Parliament voted in favor of cutting subsidies for palm oil based biodiesel by 2021. If Europe were to end support for palm oil biodiesel, this would send a powerful signalto world markets, reduce demand for dirty palm oil, and force palm oil producing countries to get serious about ending deforestation.

Energy ministers of all 28 member states are meeting on Monday in Brussels. We only have a few days left to convince the Commission and a few reluctant key member States like Germany, Spain, and Italy. Now’s the perfect time to get our voices heard.

Tell the EU: No rainforest in my tank! Stop subsidising palm oil based biodiesel.

The Renewable Energy Directive (RED) was enacted to promote alternative transport fuels that reduce greenhouse gases compared to fossil fuels. 10 years after the law was passed, the opposite has happened: the law increased, not reduced emissions from transport fuels. This is because of loads of imports of unsustainable biofuels.

Of all biodiesel, palm oil is the cheapest and has the highest greenhouse gas emissions – three times worse for the climate than fossil diesel. This is because palm expansion drives deforestation and peatland drainage in Southeast Asia, releasing carbon bombs in the atmosphere.

Europe’s greed for cheap and dirty palm oil is pushing endangered species like orangutans, pygmy elephants, and the Sumatran tiger to the brink of extinction and displacing communities whose livelihoods depend entirely on the forest.

Tell the EU: No rainforest in my tank! Stop subsidising palm oil based biodiesel.

If the world were to follow Europe’s current thirst for palm oil biodiesel, we’d need to exploit an area equal to the remaining rainforests on peatlands of Borneo, Sumatra and peninsular Malaysia. We can prevent such destruction form happening if we act now.

Together, we forced European legislators to act on important issues including  bee-killing neonic pesticides, Monsanto’s glyphosate, and plastics pollution. We know how to win, and with your help today we can force the EU to make the right decision on palm oil and biofuels.

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