Is the carbon footprint of palm oil largely underestimated?

According to a study published in Nature Communications , the carbon footprint of oil palm cultivation could be much higher than expected: researchers have calculated carbon emissions 21% higher than those of the IPCC when it comes to ancient tropical forests converted into palm groves.

The carbon footprint of the palm oil industry is higher than the IPCC estimates, according to a study.

Palm oil is a favorite lipid for industrialists who use it for processed foods. But its already high environmental cost due to the conversion of tropical forests to intensive oil palm plantations could actually be underestimated: according to a study published in the scientific journal Nature Communications , the amount of carbon emitted during this conversion would actually be higher than the value estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)!

The conversion of one hectare of forest equivalent to a transatlantic flight for 530 people!

Prelude to the analysis, researchers from the University of Göttingen, authors of the study, began by raising in the field, in Indonesia , various data relating to the cultivation of oil palm but also rubber (which makes it possible to manufacture rubber). In particular, the size of the crops, the growth of trees, and the state of the biomass on the ground. Indonesia and Malaysia alone account for 85% of palm oil production worldwide!

Verdict? After conversion to the palm grove, each hectare releases an additional 174 tonnes of carbon into the atmosphere as CO 2 . "This roughly corresponds to the emissions of 530 people traveling from Geneva to New York in economy class," said Thomas Guillaume, a post-doctoral fellow at EPFL, co-author of the publication.

IPCC. This value, calculated from the data collected, is superior to the IPCC estimate for quantifying the influence of palm oil production on greenhouse gas emissions. In the study, the researchers indicate that the carbon footprint of converting tropical forests to palm groves could have been underestimated "up to 21%". However, the situation is less critical for rubber trees: the conversion of the jungle to the rubber crop releases an additional 116 tonnes of carbon.

New practices to limit breakage

The culture of this species does not only affect global warming, but also biodiversity. And the emblematic Orangutans, sad victims of deforestation , are not the only ones concerned. The regular harvests of these ancient tropical jungles lead to a loss of plant litter on the ground, and thus the disappearance of the organisms that digest this biomass (for example insects, micro-organisms ...). In fact, the soil of oil palm plantations is regularly cleaned with herbicides, in order to facilitate exploitation.

So what to do to limit the breakage: can we combine oil palm culture and ecology? One way would be to favor palm farms that do not involve prior deforestation , for example on old grasslands or savannas. In Colombia or Cameroon, new planting techniques are being tested to minimize the need for agricultural land, notes Thomas Guillaume, mentioning the Oil Palm Adaptative Landscape project (OPAL) , funded by several Swiss government agencies.

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