Palm oil is the most produced and traded vegetable oil in the world, and global demand has grown at more than 5% a year over the last decade. When not managed correctly, this demand puts pressure on land use at the expense of local communities, fragile ecosystems, tropical forests, and affects climate change in several and substantial ways. Deforestation linked to clearing trees to make room for palms has contributed to the loss of 150,000 orangutans in Indonesia since 2002.

We would like the UK government to assist in encouraging all users of palm oil to move to credibly sustainable sources by doing two things:

1. Obliging manufacturers to label foods containing palm oil in a way that makes the source - sustainable or not - clear. 
2. Financially penalising the use of non-sustainably sourced palm oil and blended vegetable oils where the oils going into the blend aren't labelled.

These small steps would have a huge impact on people's ability to support responsible manufacturers and avoid irresponsible ones.