25/10/2013 (The Star) - Sixty palm oil mills have committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by trapping the biogas emitted from palm oil mill effluent and use them as fuel.

Two of them had linked up to the national grid, said Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas.

“We are working on the mills to be linked to the national grid,” he said after launching the International Conference on Oil Palm and the Environment yesterday. There are 430 palm oil mills nationwide.

Douglas said that this was part of the National Key Economic Areas on palm oil initiative to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) at the mills.

“If all mills trap their methane, the emission of about 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent may be mitigated a year,” he said, adding that this would translate to GHG emissions of about three million passenger cars a year.

He also said that the negative perception on oil palm cultivation spread by western NGOs and media posed a great challenge for the trade and if not addressed properly, it could affect the marketability of the products.

The palm oil industry had recorded the highest food and non-food consumption among 17 major oils and fats produced and consumed globally and Malaysia accounts for 35.5% of the world’s palm oil production and 44% of global exports of palm oil.

Malaysia’s export earnings were valued at RM73.26bil last year.