RSPO delays greenhouse gas criteria for industry

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) has delayed its greenhouse gas (GHG) criteria for the industry until its new working group comes up with the methodology in a year, President Jan-Kees Vis said. “Unlike the other requirements under the Principles and Criteria in the RSPO Certification scheme, the GHG criteria will be a voluntary element,” he said on the sidelines of the Seventh RSPO meeting in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The GHG will be required to meet the demands of the European biofuel program (feedstock use) and carbon accounting. Vis said that more far-reaching agreements were needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the climate summit in Copenhagen and the Kyoto Protocol, which ends in 2012. (November 3, 2009)