PRESS RELEASE: RSPO AND GLOBAL GREEN GROWTH INSTITUTE SIGN MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING

A five year Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Jakarta to enhance collaboration and funding for key activities and organisations in the sustainable palm oil sector

JAKARTA, 15 JANUARY 2020: Today, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) Secretariat and Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) signed a five-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), providing a framework for cooperation and collaboration in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Paris Climate Agreement.

The five-year MoU, signed by RSPO Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Darrel Webber and GGGI Assistant Director-General, Susanne Pederson is expected to align GGGI members’ initiatives towards green growth and low carbon development outcomes in the palm oil sector and related business opportunities to create green jobs and mobilise green investments globally. GGGI and RSPO will work together towards common objectives, including the realisation of sustainable palm oil development, helping our stakeholders to secure access to the global market and for responsible palm oil entrepreneurs to obtain premium prices for their certified sustainable products.

GGGI Assistant Director-General Susanne Pederson stated, “As an international intergovernmental organisation that promotes green growth development, the GGGI supports the commitments of the RSPO to stop deforestation, protect peatlands, and enforce human rights and socially responsible development. GGGI also recognises the important role of the palm oil sector to contribute to greenhouse gas emission reduction and the efforts to achieve the global climate and sustainable development goals. GGGI is interested to leverage the lessons learned from RSPO’s experiences to develop and/or strengthen national palm oil certification schemes and support our member countries to adopt and implement these lessons learned in their policies and plans.”

RSPO CEO Darrel Webber echoed the importance of this partnership, “In a time in which we face a climate crisis, it is vital to increase collaboration between international organisations like GGGI and RSPO. Both organisations convene many global stakeholders across public and private sectors and share a common mission. Through collaboration, we can amplify our impact in our shared regions and programmes to better provide solutions.”

Building on their comparative advantages and ensuring their complementarity and mutual reinforcement, this partnership will contribute to meeting the Nationally Determined Contributions of GGGI members countries involved in the palm oil supply chain. The parties will work with palm oil producers, financial investors, and other stakeholders in their GGGI member countries to promote sustainable growth and production of palm oil, especially focusing on inclusiveness by building sustainable models, and helping to increase access to markets for certified sustainable palm oil (CSPO) and market commitment to CSPO. The RSPO will share knowledge from existing case studies on jurisdictional approaches to certification to aid in the alignment of pipeline projects with jurisdictional commitments to RSPO certification.

About RSPO:

The Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was formed in 2004 with the objective of promoting the growth and use of sustainable oil palm products through credible global standards and engagement of stakeholders. RSPO is a not-for-profit, international, membership organisation that unites stakeholders from the different sectors of the palm oil industry including oil palm producers, palm oil processors or traders, consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, banks and investors, environmental or nature conservation NGOs, and social or developmental NGOs.

This multi-stakeholder representation is mirrored in the governance structure of RSPO such that seats in the Board of Governors, Steering Committees and Working Groups are fairly allocated to each sector. In this way, RSPO lives out the philosophy of the “roundtable” by giving equal rights to each stakeholder group, facilitating traditionally adversarial stakeholders in working together to reach decisions by consensus, and achieving RSPO’s shared vision of making sustainable palm oil the norm.

The seat of the association is in Zurich, Switzerland, while the secretariat is currently based in Kuala Lumpur with satellite offices in Jakarta (ID), London (UK), Zoetermeer (NL), Beijing (CN) and Bogotá (CO).

About the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI):

Based in Seoul, GGGI is an intergovernmental organization that supports developing country governments transition to a model of economic growth that is environmentally sustainable and socially inclusive. GGGI delivers programs in 36 member countries with technical support, capacity building, policy planning and implementation, and by helping to build a pipeline of bankable green investment projects. More on GGGI’s events, projects and publications can be found on www.gggi.org. You can also follow GGGI on Twitter and join us on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

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