Indonesia’s ambitious biodiesel program will increase the risks of deforestation as more tropical forest could be cleared to grow palm oil, environmentalists have warned, urging policymakers to implement a long-term ban on new plantations. The country — which is home to the world’s third-largest tropical forests but is also its biggest producer of palm oil — has steadily increased the portion in its biodiesel mandate derived from palm oil since 2018 to boost demand. Looking to also curb costly fuel imports and its own planet-heating emissions, the Southeast Asian country raised the “bio” content in its biodiesel to 30% in late 2019 from 20% the year before, with the rest being fossil fuel. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has targeted biodiesel made entirely out of palm oil, although hasn’t set a firm deadline for rolling that out widely as engines would need to be modified. State energy company PT Pertamina started trials last month on the so-called “green diesel” after conducting tests with jet fuel late last year. Yuyun Harmono, climate justice campaign manager at the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI), said no additional land would be used to produce palm oil for biodiesel yet but that that could change in the future, threatening forests further. “If there is increasing demand for fuel, there will also be an increase in demand for biofuel … of course there is a (deforestation) risk,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Indonesia was named as one of the top three countries for rainforest loss in 2019, according to Global Forest Watch, a monitoring service that uses satellite data. Palm oil — used widely in cosmetics, food products and biofuel around the world — has faced scrutiny from green activists and consumers, who have blamed its production for forest loss, fires and worker exploitation.

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