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photo by macinate (source: Flickr Creative Commons)
Malaysian palm oil lobbyists have apparently succeeded in keeping – and even increasing – the amount of biodiesel sourced from palm oil used in European cars and power plants. In an effort to curb greenhouse gas emissions, the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) requires 10% of fuels in the EU to come from renewable sources.
Yet despite palm oil being technically renewable as a fuel source, its cultivation is a serious threat to rainforests and peatlands in Malaysia and Indonesia. On top of deforestation and the loss of ecosystems and species such as orangutans, the slash and burn methods often employed in the harvesting of palm result in high levels of black carbon and CO2.
Forests in the biggest palm oil-producing countries of Malaysia and Indonesia are rich in rare wildlife, including the orangutan and Sumatran tiger, but about 90 per cent of an area’s flora and fauna are lost when the land is converted to monoculture plantations where the plants are grown in straight lines. Some palm oil producers have also been linked to human rights abuses
–Independent
According to a piece in the Independent, the inclusion of palm oil in the Renewable Energy Directive is a loophole resulting in a very bad bargain if we want biofuels to be of any real benefit to the environment. However, we should not tar all biofuels with the same brush. Brazil has successfully used sugar cane ethanol since World War Two. Sugar cane biofuel has a favorable energy balance, does not encroach on food sources and is not directly threatening to Brazil’s rainforests.
by Graham Land
For more information on biofuels read the following articles:
Fuel, food or fraud: New study on the ethics of biofuel
Bad biofuel breakdown: Efforts to ‘Green up’ palm oil face too many blocks
The biofuels controversy continues: should we get off the bandwagon?
Palm oil = bogus ‘biodiesel’ – Indonesia now world’s 3rd highest emitter of greenhouse gasses
