ON Oct 22, the Malaysian Oil Scientists and Technologists Association (MOSTA) will host the "Palm Oil Industry and the Circular Economy" conference in Kuala Lumpur.
The conference is one of many efforts by MOSTA president Tan Sri Augustine Ong to showcase oil palm's superior sustainability attributes.
A key part of this conference is the unveiling of new scientific evidence on the sequestration power of oil palm. The fact that the average oil palm yield is almost 10 times more than other oilseed crops is enough evidence that the oil palm is a bigger carbon sequester. Theoretically, oil palm can yield up to 17 to 19 tonnes of oil per hectare per year.
The average now is only four tonnes and already showing a sequestration power far exceeding other oil crops. There will be a massive jump in sequestration if the yield is increased.
In nature, we know that atmospheric carbon emissions are balanced by carbon uptake through sequestration that mostly occurs via photosynthesis, plus a much smaller proportion via geological processes.
Since the formation of the Earth, science has suggested that the ratio between emitted and sequestered carbon has varied considerably, with atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels ranging from 100,000 ppm (parts per million) to a mere 100 ppm.
Over time, a huge amount of carbon has been sequestered due to photosynthesis and essentially removed from the cycle, being buried as fossil deposits of coal, oil and gas.
The atmospheric CO2 levels were relatively low then, averaging about 220 ppm.
However, large quantities of sequestered fossil carbon have recently been used as energy sources, resulting in a particularly rapid increase in CO2 emissions to the current value of 424 ppm.
Unless nothing changes, the prediction is that it may rises to more than 800 ppm by 2100. This is alarming for the world, threatening future food production and social stability.
Carbon sequestration is no longer keeping up with recent fossil based emissions. To address the current imbalance, it is important to reduce net emissions and promote sequestration.
Fossil fuels should be phased out to be replaced by renewables. Carbon sequestration by tropical trees and crops already removes in excess of 1,000 million tonnes of atmospheric CO2 annually but is threatened by deforestation and the drainage of carbon-rich peatland.
Improvements in carbon sequestration can be achieved by policies such as growing tropical crops as part of agroforestry systems, limiting deforestation and the use of peatland, and auditing the carbon impact of major cropping systems in order to focus on those crops that deliver both high yields and carbon efficiency.
Professor Dennis Murphy of the University of Wales, who will speak at the Oct 22 conference, has produced evidence that the oil palm is a viable candidate crop to power sequestration.
A study of the oil palm has demonstrated that it had favourable carbon sequestration potential that, under some circumstances, was comparable with tropical forests and superior to other oil crops.
The crop also has relatively untapped biomass sequestration potential in the form of its currently underutilised by-products, such as fronds and trunks.
A strategy that has proved successful in increasing carbon sequestration without using additional cropland is the development of higher yielding crop varieties. In the case of oil palm, this is possible.
As fruit yields have been increased by as much as threefold, this could more than double the crop's sequestration capacity as the new varieties are planted over the next decade.
As is always reiterated, only science can silence oil palm critics.
PROFESSOR DATUK DR AHMAD IBRAHIM
Tan Sri Omar Centre for STI Policy, UCSI University