Environmentalists warn the plan to increase palm oil content in biodiesel will mean more deforestation, despite its association with renewables
.jpg)
Indonesia’s road vehicles are already running on B30 biodiesel, 30% of which is derived from palm oil (Image: Wahyudi / China Dialogue)
Indonesia is aiming to increase its use of biodiesel blends as a renewable and alternative fuel, but critics say it could undermine the country’s climate goals.
In August 2023, the country launched biodiesel blended with 35% palm oil content, a fuel mix known as B35, and its government has recently reaffirmed plans to introduce mandatory use of B40 – upping the palm oil content to 40% – by January.
Biodiesel is a renewable fuel made from vegetable oils or biomass, such as algae material and animal waste. It is blended with diesel for use in vehicles, and in Indonesia the blends use palm oil.
Campaigners and experts have now warned that the planned increase of palm oil in the fuel mix will lead to plantation expansions and therefore more deforestation.
More palm oil means more clearings
Indonesia’s coordinating minister for economic affairs, Airlangga Hartarto, told media in September that the government saved IDR 404.32 trillion between 2018 and 2022 because the mandatory use of biodiesel decreased the amount of diesel imports required.
But as the mandatory biodiesel blend rises, so too will domestic demand for crude palm oil (CPO), experts and campaigners say. This will be further fueled by newly inaugurated President Prabowo Subianto’s ambitious push to eventually implement B100, or 100% crude palm oil, in a move intended to shift the country away from reliance on imported diesel and bring Indonesia towards energy self-sufficiency.
