Palm oil production has long been criticised for its environmental impact through deforestation and despite a strong environmental case for curtailing the industry, at present none of the existing alternative products would be economically or environmentally viable at scale.

“Palm oil is the most widely used land-grown oil crop, and expansion in the market over the past few decades has led to increases in greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of biodiverse tropical forest areas to farming. Whilst action is being taken to improve the sustainability of palm oil cultivation it is not happening as effectively or quickly as it needs to.”

“Governments in producing countries and industry should be working together closely to reduce the impact of the industry while synthetic alternatives are developed for the sake of our climate.”

The suite of measures they recommend to reduce the impact of production include empowering the existing Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) scheme to take effective enforcement action where needed.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Verder lezen: https://phys.org/news/2020-03-palm-oil-sustainable-scalable.html

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