JAKARTA, March
27 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government on Wednesday threatened to quit the
Paris accord on climate change if the European Union keeps moving with a plan
to bar crude palm oil (CPO) from being used in raw materials for bio-fuel, a
senior minister said.
The move came
after the European commission passed delegated acts classifying CPO as a
product that is not sustainable, leading to exemption of the commodity from the
list of raw materials for the eco-friendly transport fuel. The acts will be brought
to the EU's parliament which will decide within 2 months whether to enforce it
or not by 2030.
"If the
United States and Brazil can exit from the climate deal. We consider it because
it is linked with the interests of the Indonesian people," Indonesia's
Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan stressed.
The minister
said that the government would firmly defend its national interests as over 20
million people across the country rely much on the palm oil sector which has
created many jobs and helped alleviate poverty in the country.
The European
Union has often accused that palm oil plantations have contributed to the
deforestation which threatens the habitat of several endangered species.
However,
Indonesia has rebuffed the accusation, saying that the country's growers have
applied a sustainable and eco-friendly way of cultivation of the commodity.