Data on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change (1) show palm oil unsustainable, despite the fairy tales told by palmocrats. (2) Revealing this, in unsuspected times, is a European Commission report. In line with previous studies conducted by the EPA (Environment Protection Agency, USA).
The Globiom report – published by the European Commission (3) based on solid scientific research – highlights ‘a highly negative climate change impact’ of current palm oil production. The analysis considers the following aspects:
– Massive forest fires (deforestation),
– river drainage,
– soil erosion,
– Soil and water pollution.
Unsustainable palm oil, here’s why
The devastation of peatland forests (peatlands) is caused by palm cultivation in Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Central America and sub-Saharan Africa. (4) And they result in greenhouse gas emissions-up to 200 times greater than those caused by fires in other forest areas (5)-that linger over decades (about 75 years).
‘Sustainable certification’ is scientifically false precisely because of the lack of monitoring of multi-decade greenhouse gas emissions. (6) Moreover, if palm oil is certified as sustainable, no land use change should have occurred in the previous half century. An assumption about which serious doubts can be raised.
Traceability is itself illusory, since only one of the 14 multinationals interviewed by Greenpeace said they could trace the plantations of origin. And none have been able to state with certainty that the palm oil used does not come from recently deforested lands.
Forgotten human rights
Fundamental human rights related to land robbery, (7) slavery and child exploitation also escape the wide meshes of self-certification, as noted above. Who also gloss over the protection of endangered animal species. From orangutans to elephants, tigers and butterflies.
Fairy tales of palmocrats have short legs in short. And it is not the ‘conspiracists’ (as the lorsignori call the writer, for initiating denunciations and mobilizations against tropical fat in Italy) who are saying this, but scientists. According to whom unsustainable palm oil is not even useful as biodiesel because its carbon emissions exceed those of petroleum. (8)
Notes
(1) GHG (GreenHouse Gases) emissions.
(2) The neologism ‘palmocrats’ is used by the author to identify palm-producing giants and their large industrial clients. In addition to the lobbies representing their interests. As RSPO (Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil) and in Italy UPA (Sustainable Palm Union).
(3) https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/Final%20Report_GLOBIOM_publication.pdf
The report analyzes the so-called ILUC (indirect land use change), which is the environmental impact of land use change caused by the cultivation of raw materials for so-called biofuels. Such as biodiesel (palm) and ethanol (corn and other crops)
(4) ‘In Southeast Asia, cropland expands by 930 kha, of which 290 kha are sourced from grassland, 80 kha from other natural vegetation and 570 kha from primary forest. Increase in palm oil plantations remains more limited in other regions, with only 40 kha in Sub-Saharan Africa.’ (Globiom Report)
(5) One hectare of incinerated peat forest emits the equivalent of 55 tons of carbon, largely released as methane (CH4). The polluting potential of methane, with respect to the greenhouse effect, is 25 times that of carbon dioxide (CNR, Institute of Biometeorology)
(6) Greenhouse gas emissions from peatlands should, if anything, be considered under the ‘High Carbon Stock’ approach, according to scientists. But the palmocrats and their handlers seem to keep well clear of a scientific approach, as seen
(7) Some examples in Note 5 to the article https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/palm-oil-the-game-is-almost-over/
(8) Source International Food Policy Research Institute
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
