Shahzaib

The $60 billion global trade in palm oil has come under criticism from environmentalists because huge areas of tropical rainforest are cleared to grow it. The European Union passed a law in 2019 to phase out the use of palm oil for renewable fuels by 2030 over concerns about deforestation. Malaysia, which along with neighbouring Indonesia has about 85% of the world’s palm oil production, is considering a law that would ban all products that indicate the oil is used. Malaysia has also launched an international PR and lobbying offensive to protect the reputation of its most important export.

Malaysia is a leader in sustainable palm oil. 

In 2004, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) was founded to formulate the principles & criteria for the production of sustainable palm oil. The founding members of the RSPO include Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), Malaysian Palm Oil Association (MPOA), Unilever, Migros, and AAK. In 2008, Malaysia became the first country in the world to produce and export RSPO-certified sustainable palm oil. Malaysian Palm Oil was the world’s first sustainable oil company. By the end of 2020, about 19% of global palm oil will be RSPO certified.

Why a ban on palm oil won’t solve deforestation

Palm oil is one of the crops which are most frequently associated with deforestation, habitat loss, local community displacement and other social and environmental issues. This has initiated a discussion about whether we need a ban on Malaysian palm oil (or any other).

However, while it is true that the current way Malaysian palm oil is produced is a major driver of deforestation and other issues associated with it, the whole topic is a whole lot more complicated than that and will require a more complex solution than a palm oil ban.

That’s because if we were to give up palm oil completely, we’d need to find an alternative – and doing so would be more destructive to the environment than you likely think.

How palm oil plantations preventing flooding?
Palm oil has a major impact on nearly everyone’s life. Palm oil is in growing market due to the low cost
and is used in almost all. It’s in everything from pizza and candy bars, as well as washing cleaning
products and detergents, cosmetics, petroleum diesel stocks, and trigeneration plants. Palm oil
plantations cover vast fields and have a variety of site requirements. Crops in plains and riparian areas
are more vulnerable to erosion during times of heavy rain than crops in higher topographic locations.
Untenable palm oil cultivation can result in extensive deforestation of rainforests, and heavy rainfall can
have an effect on oil production. Palm trees can survive transient floods, but submerged areas can
cause harm to plantations.

Industry 4.0 trend in Malaysian Palm Oil Industry

What is the next step the palm oil industry needs to take to ensure sustainability and efficiency, and how can it use Industry 4.0 in this journey? 

Digital technology continues to drive exponential change, impacting every facet of society. It has gone from slide rules and logs to personal computers to cloud-based cognitive systems within a generation.

Palm Oil and Sustainability debate, a brief perspective

Certification of palm oil is required to meet the standard of sustainability. Concerns about the impacts of palm oil led to its standardization, but regulators must weigh whether they are justified. Palm oil is usually extracted from the plantations of Indonesia and Malaysia. The problem associated with its production is the claim by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that the production of these palm oils leads to massive deforestation. Moreover, the 2019 forest fires in the rainforests led to the destruction of biodiversity. There are several roundtables that monitor and consider the impacts caused by palm oil production and their mitigation measures. There are also standards related to palm oil, International Sustainability and Carbon Certification, compliance which ensures the sustainability of palm oil. 

“Save the rain forest by using palm oil, not avoiding it”

If you have recently stopped using palm oil under the influence of popularly going negative campaigns about their role in destroying the rain forest, this article is for you. 

Renewable diesel, a story for tomorrow

Even though the use of fossil fuels in traffic is here for so long. However, these are also causing many greenhouse gases and air pollutants, particularly in densely populated and rapidly growing cities.

Hardly any other natural product is as controversial in Europe as palm oil. And yet it is the most widely used cooking oil in the world, from margarine to biscuits, from soap to soups. It is also found in biofuel. The food industry consumes about 70% of the world’s supply. The global market for palm oil is currently estimated at around €55 billion ($60 billion) and is expected to reach a market value of €80 billion by 2021. By comparison, the European biodiesel market is estimated at €9 billion per year. According to the Malaysian government, 74% of Malaysia’s agricultural land is used for palm oil production. About 600,000 small farmers depend on the palm oil industry; they own 40% of the land used for palm oil plantations. But the industry has come under fire in recent years from environmental activists and consumers, who blame it for forest loss and fires, as well as the exploitation of workers.