Environmental Diplomacy: Case Study of the Eu-Indonesia Palm Oil Dispute

Abstract

The EU’s decision to exclude palm oil as renewable energy in the Renewable Energy Directive II (RED) faced critics and protest from Indonesia and Malaysia. However, the EU argued that the expansion of palm oil has direct link with deforestation and degradation of forest. This research is eager to understand the dynamic of the European Union environmental diplomacy in the case study of the EU-Indonesia palm oil dispute. This research found that the dynamic of the EU environmental diplomacy in the case study of the EU-Indonesia palm oil dispute has three phases namely the low-carbon economy, the EU green leadership and the EU-Indonesia trade war.

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“…The first study describes the European Union's economic diplomacy efforts to prohibit importing Indonesian palm oil. The European Union aims to integrate economic growth to reduce carbon emissions (Verdinand, 2019). The second study describes Indonesia's economic diplomacy efforts in response to the ban on palm oil imports by prohibiting raw nickel exports.…”

“…In January 2018, the European Union Parliament supported the European Commission's announcement that palm oil in the form of biodiesel would be prohibited from entering the European continent beginning in January 2021. The European Commission believes that the Indonesian government's palm oil production is incompatible with the Renewable Energy Directives (RED), which seeks to prevent deforestation and peatland degradation (Verdinand, 2019). Internationally, Indonesia has been chastised for the development of its palm oil industry, which has always resulted in social and environmental conflicts.…”