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Oil-Palm Fuel Could Be More Carbon Intensive Than Diesel
Oil-Palm Fuel Could Be More Carbon Intensive Than Diesel
15/11/2013 (environmentalresearchweb) - Emissions of greenhouse gases resulting from expansion of oil-palm crops in the Brazilian state of Pará could give the resulting biodiesel a higher carbon intensity than petroleum diesel, if policies on forest protection are not enforced. That's according to researchers at the University of California, Davis, US, who have studied the emissions resulting from land conversion over the next 30 years under three different levels of policy enforcement – none, some and strict.
"Without strict enforcement, the land-use emissions can be quite high, not to mention other ecological impacts on this very important forest area," Sonia Yeh of the University of California, Davis told environmentalresearchweb. "Given Brazil's commitment to reduce deforestation and greenhouse-gas emissions, more attention needs to be paid to enforcement to ensure that the policy goals are met without irreversible damage to the environment."
Brazil is the world's fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, chiefly as a result of deforestation for cattle production but more recently for biofuel crops. "In an effort to minimize deforestation without stunting economic growth, the Brazilian government approved a bill to expand 4.3 million hectares of previously deforested lands to oil-palm plantations," wrote Yeh and colleague Sahoko Yui in Environmental Research Letters (ERL).
However, enforcement of Brazil's forest code for the preservation of environmentally significant areas such as reserves, land next to rivers and reservoirs, and hilltops or steep slopes has not been that successful in the past.
Today, Brazil produces close to 3 billion litres of biodiesel, much of it from soybean oil, and there are projections that usage could be up to 12 billion litres by 2022. Palm oil is seen as advantageous because it has a high market value, low long-term production costs due to its lifetime of around 25 years and a high yield, averaging 3.7 tonnes/hectare compared to soybean oil at 0.4 tonnes/hectare, where the bulk of the crop is used for animal feed. The crop could even increase biodiversity for pasture or land that is degraded. However, palm oil must be extracted from the crop within 24 hours of harvest, so plantations must be close to mills and near transport infrastructure.
Yeh and Yui focused their studies on the state of Pará in the north of the country because it contains the majority of land that has been found suitable for oil-palm expansion. They found that converting 22.5 million hectares (86,706 square miles) of land in this region to oil palm could produce around 110 billion litres of biodiesel a year. In a scenario without any enforcement of forest-protection policies, less than a third of the land conversion (29%) would take place on deforested land. This would result in emissions of 84 g of carbon-dioxide equivalent per megajoule (gCO2e/MJ) of biofuel produced. Diesel from petroleum is currently rated at 83.8 gCO2e/MJ by the European Commission.
For a scenario with some enforcement, 46% of the conversion would be on deforested land, giving emissions of 60 gCO2e/MJ. The team said that when taking into account production and use of the fuel, as well as direct land-use emissions, the total lifecycle carbon intensity of biodiesel will greatly exceed that of petroleum diesel in both a "no enforcement" and "some enforcement" scenario. In a scenario with strict enforcement, 78% of the new oil-palm plantations would be on deforested areas, giving emissions of 14 gCO2e/MJ.
"Policy enforcement can play a big role in the type and location of land converted," said Yui. "To date, there have been few studies of the suitability of and impact of policy enforcement on oil-palm expansion in Brazil."
To come up with their results, Yeh and Yui used spatial data analysis. "The type and location of land-use change depends on drivers such as neighbouring land use, conversion elasticity, access to infrastructure, distance to markets and land suitability," said Yeh. "Most of the 'top-down' economic models used by policymakers to estimate the indirect land-use change effect at a global scale as a result of their biofuel policy are not designed to capture these complex interactions at the local/regional level." Yeh believes that the kind of "bottom-up" modelling that she and Yui used provides an illustration of the effects of non-economic drivers.
The researchers are now collaborating with other groups to explore combining bottom-up and top-down land-use models to "reduce the uncertainty of the projected impacts and to gain insights on effective policy tools to ensure sustainable biofuel production".
The team has also been examining how biofuels can cause indirect land-use change by competing with agriculture and how policy can mitigate this. "For example, certification schemes combined with good regional land-use policies can potentially be an effective way to ensure the production of sustainable biofuels," said Yeh. "Policies to reduce the incentives for land-based biofuel can also be an effective approach."
"Without strict enforcement, the land-use emissions can be quite high, not to mention other ecological impacts on this very important forest area," Sonia Yeh of the University of California, Davis told environmentalresearchweb. "Given Brazil's commitment to reduce deforestation and greenhouse-gas emissions, more attention needs to be paid to enforcement to ensure that the policy goals are met without irreversible damage to the environment."
Brazil is the world's fourth largest emitter of greenhouse gases, chiefly as a result of deforestation for cattle production but more recently for biofuel crops. "In an effort to minimize deforestation without stunting economic growth, the Brazilian government approved a bill to expand 4.3 million hectares of previously deforested lands to oil-palm plantations," wrote Yeh and colleague Sahoko Yui in Environmental Research Letters (ERL).
However, enforcement of Brazil's forest code for the preservation of environmentally significant areas such as reserves, land next to rivers and reservoirs, and hilltops or steep slopes has not been that successful in the past.
Today, Brazil produces close to 3 billion litres of biodiesel, much of it from soybean oil, and there are projections that usage could be up to 12 billion litres by 2022. Palm oil is seen as advantageous because it has a high market value, low long-term production costs due to its lifetime of around 25 years and a high yield, averaging 3.7 tonnes/hectare compared to soybean oil at 0.4 tonnes/hectare, where the bulk of the crop is used for animal feed. The crop could even increase biodiversity for pasture or land that is degraded. However, palm oil must be extracted from the crop within 24 hours of harvest, so plantations must be close to mills and near transport infrastructure.
Yeh and Yui focused their studies on the state of Pará in the north of the country because it contains the majority of land that has been found suitable for oil-palm expansion. They found that converting 22.5 million hectares (86,706 square miles) of land in this region to oil palm could produce around 110 billion litres of biodiesel a year. In a scenario without any enforcement of forest-protection policies, less than a third of the land conversion (29%) would take place on deforested land. This would result in emissions of 84 g of carbon-dioxide equivalent per megajoule (gCO2e/MJ) of biofuel produced. Diesel from petroleum is currently rated at 83.8 gCO2e/MJ by the European Commission.
For a scenario with some enforcement, 46% of the conversion would be on deforested land, giving emissions of 60 gCO2e/MJ. The team said that when taking into account production and use of the fuel, as well as direct land-use emissions, the total lifecycle carbon intensity of biodiesel will greatly exceed that of petroleum diesel in both a "no enforcement" and "some enforcement" scenario. In a scenario with strict enforcement, 78% of the new oil-palm plantations would be on deforested areas, giving emissions of 14 gCO2e/MJ.
"Policy enforcement can play a big role in the type and location of land converted," said Yui. "To date, there have been few studies of the suitability of and impact of policy enforcement on oil-palm expansion in Brazil."
To come up with their results, Yeh and Yui used spatial data analysis. "The type and location of land-use change depends on drivers such as neighbouring land use, conversion elasticity, access to infrastructure, distance to markets and land suitability," said Yeh. "Most of the 'top-down' economic models used by policymakers to estimate the indirect land-use change effect at a global scale as a result of their biofuel policy are not designed to capture these complex interactions at the local/regional level." Yeh believes that the kind of "bottom-up" modelling that she and Yui used provides an illustration of the effects of non-economic drivers.
The researchers are now collaborating with other groups to explore combining bottom-up and top-down land-use models to "reduce the uncertainty of the projected impacts and to gain insights on effective policy tools to ensure sustainable biofuel production".
The team has also been examining how biofuels can cause indirect land-use change by competing with agriculture and how policy can mitigate this. "For example, certification schemes combined with good regional land-use policies can potentially be an effective way to ensure the production of sustainable biofuels," said Yeh. "Policies to reduce the incentives for land-based biofuel can also be an effective approach."