JAKARTA – The palm oil industry has been taking part in the climate action of reducing the greenhouse gas emission to create better climate, which has been adopted by Indonesia as its priority in compliance with the Paris Agreement. Indonesia will find it difficult to reduce the emission without the contribution of the palm oil industry, the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS) reported.
BPDPKS Corporate Secretary Achmad Maulizal said that Indonesia had promised to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 29 percent on its own in 2030 and 41 percent with the international assistance. The government’s decision to implement the palm oil-based biodiesel mandatory program is one way to increase the use of renewable energy to reduce the emissions.
According to Mauli, other related efforts are also being pursued, which include replanting program of the smallholders’ oil palm plantations to increase productivity and reduce land use for opening plantations, the certification of Indonesia Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), moratorium of primary forests and peatlands, prevention of forest and land fires, and increase of public participation in forest conservation.
“The use of POME (Palm Oil Mill Effluent) for power generation should be increased to raise the electrification ratio in villages. The POME is potential to generate power for 1.4 million households and able to reduce 9.8 million tons of C02,” he said during a national seminar on “The Youth Role In Countering Black Campaigns Against Palm Oil”, which was organized by the palm oil polytechnic academy of Citra Widya Edukasi on Tuesday, 01 March 2022.
Mauli also stated that the oil palm plantations had not caused deforestations. But conversely, the plantations have functioned like re-greening efforts on the derelict lands that were abandoned after illegal loggings. “There is no denying that, based on the reality, oil palm plantations have contributed to the re-greening efforts,” he asserted. (*)
Source: infosawit.com | Featured image via forestsnews.cifor.org