Palm oil bio-fuel

Palm oil is a benefit to the environment because it is refined into a cheap Malaysial and reduces carbon in the atmosphere; a hindrance because palm oil plantations often destroy precious rainforest to gain profitability and use the unsustainable rich soil of newly logged areas. The debate revolves around the credibility of producing countries to managing the industry sustainability.

The Industry, Technology, Research and Energy Committee, which puts forward energy policies to EU government proposed to “ban the use of palm oil for feeding our cars” since the “lack of environmental standards and safeguards” leading to “an increase in tropical deforestation”, while “failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly”! The EU has a target of using 25% bio-fuel renewables by 2020. The exclusion of palm oil as a bio-fuel is a massive devastation for the EU's attempts at reaching its target, as well as to the palm oil industry.

Plantations in Indonesia and Malaysia presently produce 85 percent of commercial palm oil in the world. Environmentalists have long warned that most of these plantations were planted on cleared rainforest, and threaten the homes of endangered animals like the Orang-utan and the Sumatran tiger.

The Malaysian Palm Oil Truth Foundation (www.palmoiltruthfoundation.com) has sought to insure foreign trade that the Malaysian Palm Oil industry has always adopted sustainable cultivation best practices, including conservation and replanting. The MPOC, in fact has set up a US$5 Million Conservation Fund to assist in wild-life conservation.

The largest states in Malaysia, Sabah, has drafted a master list of protected areas based on the guidelines of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) in hopes to reassure the EU and other buyers of their dedication to conserving rainforest and wildlife. The Sabah list states that 21.8% of Sabah is now protected which is more than double the 10% recommended by the IUCN. The Malaysian Palm oil industry is the prime mover for the round-table for Sustainable Palm Oil to encourage best practices and to minimize any adverse impact on the environment by the industry, long before CSPI started.

Even if Malaysia proved they were not damaging existing rainforest or Orang-utans, a report in 2006 by a Netherlands-based research group claimed some plantations produce far more carbon dioxide by planting on peat swamps. Seeded on drained peat swamps, oil palms release a warehouse of carbon from decomposed animals and plants that had been locked in the bogs for hundreds of million years.

The palm oil debate is just one example of the cold realism dampening enthusiasm for vegetable oils as substitutes for fossil fuels. The only hope for using palm oil sustainably is setting environmental and industry standards.

More green tips articles.