Sustaining the palm oil debate

Zuraida Kamaruddin | 27th January 2022 | Uncategorised

Palm oil has long been vilified for its unsustainability – but Malaysia’s palm oil minister Zuraida Kamaruddin thinks the industry can, and should, be saved

Palm oil – which is present in more than 50 per cent of products available in supermarkets – has had a lot of bad press in the past 10 years. According to the World Wildlife Fund, the industry is one of the major drivers of deforestation. However, Malaysia’s palm oil minister, Zuraida Kamaruddin, is on a mission to balance the concerns of the environmentalists with the health of Malaysia’s economy. “It has an overwhelmingly positive impact on our country,” she says, “by decreasing rural poverty, increasing employment, and improving the quality of life of small farmers and their families by bringing infrastructure, education and healthcare to remote areas.” Driving sustainability In 2018, the EU launched its revised Renewable Energy Directive, which classifies palm oil as a high contributor to fossil fuel use. The oil will be gradually phased out of the EU renewable energy mix by 2030. France has gone further in its stance, having banned palm oil from being used as a biofuel feedstock a...

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