LONDON – Today, World Growth Chairman Ambassador Alan Oxley warned of the consequences for the world’s poor of blindly treating as fact erroneous and widely circulated claims about palm oil in a letter to Mrs. Caroline Spelman, the UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

WASHINGTON—World Growth today responded to the World Bank Group’s (WBG) palm oil review consultation in a letter to World Bank President Zoellick and a formal submission - “Whither Poverty Reduction? The World Bank’s Visible Green Hand” - ahead of the Frankfurt meeting this week on palm oil.  World Growth released the following statement and contents of the letter by its Chairman Ambassador Alan Oxley:

WASHINGTON – Recent revelations that Greenpeace exaggerated its claims about the Indonesian palm oil industry and Sinar Mas come as no surprise considering the historical pattern of gross misrepresentation of the facts by the organization in its zeal to smear the oil palm industry and impose anti-poor, anti-development policies on the people of Indonesia.

WASHINGTON – Following the recent affirmation of Europe’s biofuel policies by EU Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger, an analysis by the pro-development NGO World Growth makes clear the Renewable Energy Directive remains discriminatory and is challengeable under World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.  Chairman Alan Oxley, former Ambassador to the GATT -- predecessor to the WTO, issued the following statement: