KUCHING, June 3: Malaysia will maintain its status quo on biodiesel mandate, says Federal Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin.
In a statement yesterday, she said the Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) assured the Malaysian Biodiesel Association (MBA) that it is all ears to the group’s proposal that Malaysia should retain its existing biodiesel mandate.
This came after MBA highlighted why Malaysia should not reduce or stop its biodiesel mandate as the biodiesel industry hardly consumes one million tonnes of palm oil annually instead of over 40 million tonnes used globally.
The MBA also mentioned that any knee-jerk reaction to banning biofuels from vegetable oils would cause havoc in the global vegetable oil market.
Zuraida also said that her ministry remains committed to implementing National Biofuels Policy (NBP) which was rolled out in March 2006.
“The NBP aims to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions rate in line with the country’s aspiration towards achieving the GHG emissions reduction target of 45 per cent of GDP by 2030.
“It also aims to expand the use of downstream palm oil products into an initiative to increase the income of oil palm smallholders through palm oil market price control mechanisms as well as to help reduce the country’s dependence on fossil fuels as one of the energy security initiatives,” she said. — DayakDaily
