TANJUNG – Carbon emissions are still the focus of global attention as the cause of global warming. Indonesian palm oil industry has been accused as one of the contributors to the global carbon emissions.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 10% of global emissions are resulted from the impact of greenhouse gas emission caused by land use or degradation.
But sustainable plants like oil palm trees play an important role in mitigating the impacts of climate change due to their longer life cycle compared to other oil plants.
In 2017, European Parliament issued a resolution to exclude palm oil from the supply chain of bioenergy as it is accused as the largest contributor of gas emission due to land conversion. It is seen as potential to reduce carbon sequestration and increase carbon emissions.
The accusation is denied by Professor Supiandi Sabiham of Bogor Agricultural University (IPB University), who stated that carbon emission in Indonesia is very low, ranging from 20 to 25 tons of CO2 equivalent per hektare within one year.
According to him, the accusation that palm oil is major contributor of emission is part of negative campaigns launched by Western countries to undermine the image of palm oil on the global market.
“A number of researches conclude the oil palm plantations produce 90 tons of CO2 per hectare per year. I think it’s not realistic. Their research methods use too many assumptions, so that their researches are not accurate,” he said.
He pointed out that based on the results of research , the average net CO2 emissions compared to the amount emitted from the peat land surface, it can be concluded that there is quite large reduction in CO2 emitted into the atmosphere. It is because of the re-absorption by plants.
“It means that there is a contribution of oil palm trees , which result in reduction of net emission of CO2, at the local and national levels,” said Prof. Supiandi Sabiham.
Previously, Prof. Supiandi Sabiham led a team of researchers from IPB University to conduct a research on a test of emissions factor for palm oil plantations of PT Kimia Tirta Utama (KTU) in Riau province during the period of 2018 – 2020.
The IPB University has also collaborated with Lampung University (Unila) to conduct the same test for plantations of PT Persada Dinamika Lestari (PDL) in South Kalimantan as representation of other regions.
South Kalimantan is known as one of palm oil producing provinces in Indonesia. The research, which is led by Dr. Ir. Heru Bagus Pulunggono, becomes a representation for Kalimantan island for test of multi-location emission factor of peat land in Indonesia for oil palm cultivation.
“The same research is also being conducted in PT PDL with the same method. The only difference is their location. We also develop a model of CO2 emission estimator based on Artificial Intelligence and machine learning with the team from Unila,” said Dr. Ir. Heru Bagus Pulunggono.
The research, which is funded by the oil palm plantation fund management board (BPDPKS), uses a data research method and direct measurements on the field. The points of researches already conducted can represent Riau and Kalimantan. The results of researches have become one of scientific evidences, which show that palm oil commodity does not cause environmental damage as accused by certain groups through their negative campaigns. (*)
