Turnbull’s tangle: palm oil grown to earn Australian subsidies clears SE Asia forests and creates greenhouse effect, Australia to pay Indonesia to replant

The death of Indonesia’s forests was ahead in 20 years, aided by Australiabn subsidies for imported Palm oil. The managing director of Australian Renewable Fuels, John Lillywhite, said the government should not be subsidising biodiesel made from imported palm oil as it did little to help development of the local industry. According to Angus Grigg in Jakarta, environment minister Malcolm Turnbull pledged during last month’s Asia-Pacific Economic Co­operation group meeting to put forests at the “top of the climate-change agenda”.

Indonesia orders Bali lobbying-frenzy to reverse first-round Kyoto agreement that does not include tradeable emissions from forest land

The APEC summit will help set the stage for the UN climate change conference in Bali in December by putting the Kyoto protocol to one side “and just talking about the Earth”, according to Indonesia’s Environment Minister, reported The Australian (4/9/2007, p.7).