"If we can have a big economic project, a big fertiliser project as a D8 project to cater for the needs of its members as well as for exports, I think that will be very good," Abdullah told Reuters in an interview on Monday. Fertiliser plants use gas and naphtha as feedstock.
Yudhoyono and Abdullah told the meeting that the biofuel frenzy has worsened the global food crisis.
"We must not allow the zeal for energy security to come into direct conflict with the basic needs for food production," Abdullah said.
An estimated 1 percent of the world's arable land is used for biofuels, a figure that will rise to between 2.5 and 3.8 percent by 2030, depending on policy incentives in different countries, according to International Energy Agency figures.
And use of food such as maize, palm oil and sugar to produce biofuel has been blamed in part for record high commodity prices which are driving millions of people into hunger.
But the expansion of Malaysia and Indonesia's palm oil-driven biodiesel industry has been hampered by sky-high prices of the commodity which is also used in hundreds of food products and in a wide range of consumer goods from soap to cosmetics.
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Society
Muslim nations warn of food and fuel disaster
Posted:
Tuesday, 8 July 2008, 21:19 (MYT)
Tuesday, 8 July 2008, 21:19 (MYT)
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