A decision by a key European Parliament committee last week to beef up sustainability criteria for agrofuels and tilt the Union’s biofuel policy towards non food-based biofuels due to concerns over rising commodity prices has irritated top biofuel-exporting nations Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil.

The main bone of contention in the report adopted by the Parliament’s Industry and Energy Committee on 11 September is that it would require 40% of the EU’s 10% biofuel goal to be met from “non-food and feed-competing” second-generation biofuels or from green electricity and hydrogen, while also demanding that agrofuels offer at least 45% carbon emission savings compared to fossil fuels – a figure that would rise to 60% in 2015.

Agrofuel market to decline?

Such a move would clearly put a dent in the growth of the agrofuel market coveted by producers in Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia, as well as European…

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The Star
Wednesday - September 17, 2008

by Choi Tuck Wo

London

Malaysia, Indonesia ministers get together for the first time to voice concern

Malaysia and Indonesia have jointly urged the European Union (EU) to review its decision on renewable energy and fuel quality, particularly on the use of palm oil for the production of biofuel.

Both Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui and Indonesian Agriculture Minister Dr Anton Apriyantono have voiced concern over the move by the European Parliament’s influential Industry Committee.

Chin said the two countries would continue to engage with EU member states on the committee’s decision to increase the percentage of carbon emission savings for palm-based biodiesel from the threshold value of 35% to 45%.

Describing the move as illogical, he wondered how the EU would get its supply of biofuel once the three major raw materials of oil palm, rape seed…

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Business Times
Tuesday - September 16, 2008

Brussels
Malaysia wants the European Union (EU) to review its decision on renewable energy and fuel quality, especially on the use of palm oil for the production of biofuel, Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui said.

Describing it as discriminatory, he said: “I don’t really understand the decision. How to support it.”

Last Thursday, the European Parliament’s influential Industry Committee endorsed a 10 per cent target on the usage of biofuels in transport by 2020.

It also covers the shift from traditional biofuels made from grains or other crops towards other renewable energy sources.

“The decision by the Industry Committee to raise the percentage of carbon emission savings for palm-based biodiesel from the specified threshold level of 35 per cent to 45 per cent implies that the EU does not want to entertain the inclusion…

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31 Aug, 2008
Let’s burn it.” That’s the surefire strategy proposed by market guru and Godrej International trader Dorab Mistry at a conference this week to the problem of how to keep palm oil at $1200/t.

He is right, as usual. Since biodiesel will use up veg oil faster than plantations can make it, shortage is guaranteed. But should we listen? That’s the question.

One, any person advocating biodiesel, or indeed any biofuel (except those from recycled or agro-byproducts ), in today’s economy is dangerously against free markets. Last 12 months show the world market wants veg oil to be used as food rather than fuel.

Prices rose only to ensure there was no diversion. That’s why barely 7% of total supply trickled into fuel tanks. Even 7% wouldn’t have gone without subsidy. So extra biodiesel can only come by further distorting market logic and destabilising…

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by Lim Shie-Lynn

KUALA LUMPUR: The domestic and Southeast Asian biodiesel production could be boosted by more effective policy enforcement and support from governments in the region as the industry is facing a difficult future with costly feedstock and lower crude oil prices, an industry consultant said.

Malaysia and Indonesia recently announced that both countries would cooperate in a biofuel development programme where both would use similar specifications and blending for biodiesel.

Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin had said the country hoped to sign a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia, which would encourage a palm-based biofuel policy that both countries could use.

While the decision would be positive to the biodiesel sector, Malaysia-based engineering services firm Lurgi Sdn Bhd’s managing director Uwe Zwiefelhofer said: “The problem with biodiesel industry in this region is the…

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Business Times

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

By Ooi Tee Ching

MALAYSIA expects a 50 per cent growth in biodiesel exports to some 143,000 tonnes this year, as the business has become viable again on lower cost of crude palm oil.

Yesterday, the third month benchmark palm oil futures closed at RM2,436 per tonne, 46 per cent off from its all-time high of RM4,486 per tonne in March.

The price of palm oil traded in the futures market has been falling due to an oversupply of vegetable oils worldwide. The price drop is worsened by buyers from consuming countries, in recent weeks, attempting to renegotiate import contracts and defer their deliveries.

“We should see higher exports of biodiesel as palm oil prices have come down significantly. But this is subjected to palm oil satisfying the food sector first before the excess can be channelled for biodiesel,”…

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by Prix D Banzon

Davao City (14 August) — The country has to increase the volume of production for bio-diesel and bio-ethanol if it will compel all vehicles to use it.

Dr. Johnny T. Batalon, focal person of Crops Biofuels, Coconut and Oil Palm Specialist of the Philippine Council for Agricultural Resources and Research Development (PCARRD) said current production is only at 100,000 liters.

Batalon in an interview during the opening of the Kaniyogan Festival at SM City Davao Event Center on Wednesday, August 13 he said it would need 78 million liters for the year one (from May 6, 2007 to May 6, 2008) implementation of biodiesel and 269 million liters for the bio ethanol when it will be implemented in 2009.

Batalon admitted that there is now a problem with raw materials but he stressed that their advocacy…

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KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Malaysia plans to use 500,000 tonnes of crude palm oil from its swelling inventories in the next two to three months to produce biodiesel to boost faltering prices of the vegetable oil, Commodities Minister Peter Chin said on Tuesday.

‘We are talking about anything in the region of 500,000 tonnes,’ Peter Chin told Reuters from Indonesia by telephone.

‘The timing should depend on the strategy that we use and the infrastructure to absorb this amount but we plan do it as soon as possible. Surely in the next two to three months.’

(Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by Louise Heavens)

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The Star

Wednesday - July 30, 2008

by Suraj Raj

Sepang

But cost of growing crop must first be ascertained, cautions minister

The cost of growing jatropha needs to be ascertained before it can be fully commercialised by smallholders, says Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Peter Chin Fah Kui.

“Jatropha is a possible crop for biodiesel and the potential is there. But I would not recommend smallholders grow it until we know the cost involved,” he said after viewing the jatropha research and development activities being carried out at Asiatic Centre for Genome Technology Sdn Bhd’s (ACGT) Jatropha Experimental Station yesterday.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Asiatic Development Bhd, ACGT has been experimenting on jatropha and its various aspects, including genomics.

Chin said he did not agree with companies trying to champion jatropha by enticing small holders to grow it on a contract basis or to…

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By Catherine Makino

TOKYO, Jul 4 (IPS) - Japan wants countries to reconsider biofuels as an alternative technology to fight climate change by using fuel cell cars at the Group of Eight (G8) Summit on Jul. 4-7. The vehicles will transport the leaders of the world’s major industrialised nations when they gather on the northern Japanese Island of Hokkaido.

Honda will display its most advanced environmental technologies with its FX Clarity and Civic Hybrid. They run on a blend of fuel made from straw.

The world is increasingly turning to biofuels as a way to ease pressure from rising oil prices. But critics say biofuels may create more greenhouse gas than they save. Clearing natural forests to plant fuel plantations releases more carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and using food crops for fuel production is at odds with…

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