Breaking News-RTRS-Palm oil CO2 targets delayed as NGOs, planters tussle

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Planned palm oil carbon emission targets will be delayed by at least a year as planters clash with NGOs on calculating the vegetable oil's environmental impact, officials said on Monday.
The measure was aimed at combating the negative image of palm oil output, which green groups say has been partly fuelled by producers in Southeast Asia cutting down swathes of rainforests and draining carbon-rich peatlands.
But Malaysian and Indonesian producers say imposing limits on land expansion based on greenhouse gas emissions was an unfair barrier to trade as oil palm estates could act as net carbon sink.
The CO2 targets were delayed by a year pending further study and watered down to a voluntary undertaking during the Roundtable of Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) that brings together producers, buyers and NGOS this week in the Malaysian capital.