Members of the European Parliament have voted in favour of palm oil certification in last month’s resolution. The aim of this certification is to phase out palm oil deforestation and support the sustainable cultivation of such oils.
They have discussed various criteria that this certification should cover. Some of these criteria include child labour, land conflicts between local and indigenous communities, palm oil deforestation and habitat degradation. It was stressed that palm oil deforestation threatens the Global Agreement on Climate Change COP21 and UN Sustainable Development Goals.
640 votes to 18 have approved the resolution, with 28 abstentions. MEPs stated that the EU imports 46% of palm oil. They are asking the Commission to phase out the use and importation of oils that cause deforestation, preferably by 2020.
It is great to see that MEPs care about such matters. I would love to have fewer ingredients to watch out for during my shopping. Let’s hope they take it more serious and come up with a bulletproof sustainability certification. I wouldn’t want it to fail like the 2009 animal testing ban.
Read more on europarl.europa.eu
