Bridges Trade BioRes • Volume 7 • Number 20 • 16th November 2007

Greenpeace: Palm Oil Expansion A Pending Climate Catastrophe

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A Greenpeace report claims that global demand for palm oil is lighting the fuse of a “climate bomb” in the peat lands of Indonesia. The slash-and-burn tactics of palm oil farmers is releasing 1.8 billion tonnes of CO2 per annum from the carbon rich soils of Indonesia’s swamps.

The 22 million hectares of peat soils of Sumatra have the highest concentration of carbon in the world. Half have already been consumed by the palm oil industry. Due to the CO2 emissions resulting from the destruction of the peat swamps, Indonesia accounts for four percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. This ranks Indonesia as the third-highest global emitter of greenhouse gases, just behind the US and China.

Analysts say that global demand for palm oil will double in 25 years and triple by 2050. Big name companies like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nestlé, and Kraft are using more and more palm oil in their products like Pringles, Flora margarine, Kit Kats, and Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Increasingly, it is also being used in cooking oil and as a biofuel.

Greenpeace blames the large firms for the destructive practices used to create palm oil plantations, but company officials say there is virtually no traceability for the product.

The projected increase in demand for biofuels is of highest concern to the group. Europe plans for biofuel to account for ten percent of all its transport fuel by 2010, the US by 2020, and China and India expect to use 20 percent biofuels by 2012. Not counting the forest set aside for cooking oil and other food products, 3 million hectares of land in Indonesia have also been set aside for biofuel production.

Nearly 15.5 million hectares of plantations will be required to meet Europe’s demand for palm oil alone. In its report, Greenpeace states that “substituting even ten percent of the world demand for diesel fuel” will require “more than 75 percent of the world’s total current demand for soya, palm oil, and rapeseed oil.”

The report can be downloaded at http://www.greenpeace.org/international/press/reports

“Palm oil warning for Indonesia,” BBC NEWS, 8 November 2007; “Big companies accused of risking climate catastrophe,” GUARDIAN, 8 November 2007.