Palm oil industry driving climate change in full force
Palm oil production is one of the most prominent causes of Climate Change. The edible vegetable oil is a versatile source and is used as a common ingredient in almost half of the thing available on the shelf, including pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, bio-fuel and packaged food.
These Oil Palm trees were originally found in the Tropical regions of Africa. With rapidly increasing demands, this plantation has now set foot in Asia, North America and South America. Palm oil production is both an economic boom and an environmental disaster.
It provides fiscal benefits to the palm oil producing nations and also to both small and large scale producers, who use palm oil. At the same time, it affects the climate at every step of production.
To increase their profit, industries are indulging in compensatory afforestation by replacing rain forests with palm oil trees, using slash and burn method. Rain forests keep the climate in check by absorbing a large amount of Carbon Dioxide (CO2). Burning the forest down not only releases lots of CO2 but also leaves fewer plantations to absorb it. Clearing up of rain forests also results in loss of biodiversity and indigenous population, who live in and around these forests.
This production not only prevents the stabilization process of climate but also contributes to climate change directly to climate change. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the palm fruit. The process generates a lot of waste, which is later stored in the wastewater lagoons.
In the process of decomposition of this waste material, a large amount of methane gas is produced. Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, which causes almost 30 times more destruction than CO2. The process is rapid.
The governments too encourage it by formulating policies for the sake of their economies, without giving a second thought about its environmental implications. These consequences not only affect the country, but the world on a whole.
Indonesia and Malaysia are the biggest examples of these. Located in the tropical belt, both the countries are vigorously replacing their Rain Forest reserves with Oil Palm plantation. This results in the extinction of various species, poor air quality and annual forest fires. Indonesia also threatened to quit the Paris Agreement over its plans of phase out Palm oil by 2030.
“We’re all breathing the same atmosphere, so we’re all in this together. So, a industry’s impact is not just limited to the country they’re situated in, but spreads to the world. The policies and industries have to change for a sustainable future,” says Leon Brown, Head of Global Meteorological Operations for IBM Watson Media and Weather.
A study by an international team of researchers led by Alexander Knohl and Clifton Sabajo of the University of Gottingen suggests Indonesia is getting warmer. The temperature can vary up to 10 ° Celsius around the new plantation and 0.75° Celsius near the old ones.
India too is trying to implement such policies for fiscal benefits. The nation is the largest importer of palm oil, importing almost 50 per cent of its requirement from mainstream producers like Indonesia and Malaysia. The Indian palm oil production has jumped from approximately 51,000 hectares in 2003 in 2008–09 to over 2 Lakhs hectares in 2015–16.
To attract foreign investment in India, the government has taken up various step and introduced schemes like Technology Mission on Oilseeds (TMO) of 1986, Oil Palm Development Programme (OPDP) of 1991–92, Integrated Scheme of Oilseeds, Pulses, Oil Palm and Maize (ISOPOM) of 2004, Oil Palm Area Expansion (OPAE) of 2011–12 and National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm (NMOOP) of 2012–17. The current government has also removed any land ceiling for oil palm tree cultivation to lure FDI under ‘Make in India’ campaign.
After OPDP of 1991–92, India has brought approximately 2.60 Lakh hectors, which is equivalent to the size of more than 1.42 Lakh football fields, of land under Palm oil production. Oil Palm trees covered around 8,000 hectors before the implementation of OPDP.
Sustainable production of Palm oil is very important to tackle Climate Change to a certain extent. Hoping it would vanish completely from the market seems too ambitious.
As consumers, we’re largely unaware of the consequences of using Palm oil based products and these companies use that to their advantage. Still, certain producers are taking the pledge to judicially produce the oil, but their dedication towards this production can be seen wearing off.
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