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Sustainable palm oil pledges made at UN summit

Three of the world’s largest palm oil companies have made commitments to work towards ending deforestation – a by-product of unsustainable palm oil production.

Wilmar, Golden Agri-Resources and Cargill made the pledge at a UN summit on the use of palm oil and have also agreed to encourage incoming Indonesian president, Joko Widodo to implement polices on the issue of deforestation, The Australian reports.

According to the UN’s Environmental Protection Agency, palm oil is a leading driver of global deforestation, which causes nearly 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

The UN says that over the past year, a growing percentage of palm oil producers have pledged to use land that has not been illegally cleared and now represents up to 60 percent of global production.

Dave MacLennan, CEO of Cargill said that the company will be making commitments beyond palm oil by avoiding deforestation in all of its products.

“We understand that this sort of commitment cannot be limited to just select commodities or supply chains,” he said.

 

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