Researchers urge action over crop’s impact on air quality
Posted on 6 October 2009
Global production of palm oil now exceeds 35 million tonnes a year, with the average UK supermarket stocking hundreds of products containing it, from processed food like margarine and cakes to cosmetics.
The study shows that we need to carefully evaluate a wider range of impacts that changing land-use can have on the environment
Professor Alastair Lewis
Palm oil is also used for biofuel since it is considered to be more “environmentally friendly” than fossil fuels.
But scientists on a £2m joint UK/Malaysian research project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) have discovered a downside to the increasing global demand for the crop. The research is published in the latest issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The study, which was led by Lancaster University and included scientists from York’s Department of Chemistry, found that a square kilometre of oil palm trees on a plantation emits five times as many volatile organic compounds (VOCs) - a major contributing factor to ozone - as the same area of rain forest.
Palm oil plantations also emit more oxides of nitrogen than forests, from fertilised soil as well as from factories and vehicles on the plantations. Unless carefully managed, these nitrogen emissions will increase in the future with increased fossil fuel use.
Professor Alastair Lewis, of the University of York’s Department of Chemistry, said: “The study shows that we need to carefully evaluate a wider range of impacts that changing land-use can have on the environment. This has shown that air quality and climate effects, which are often considered separately, are actually interwoven.”
Project leader Professor Nick Hewitt of the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University added: “These compounds lead to the production of ground-level ozone, an air pollutant that damages human health, plants and materials, reduces crop productivity and has effects on the Earth’s climate. Although ozone levels are acceptable at the moment, they will increase if oxides of nitrogen are not controlled in the future.”
Study co-author Dr Rob MacKenzie of Lancaster University adds: “Our study provides an early warning of the urgent need to develop policies that manage nitrogen emissions, at the plantation, regional and national scales, if the detrimental effects of palm oil production on air quality and climate are to be avoided.”
The study warns that large scale palm production has the potential for serious effects on air quality in Asia, as output rises with economic development. But Professor Hewitt insisted that it is not too late to act to reverse “an unfortunate and inadvertent consequence of producing this crop.”
The study was conducted by the Universities of Lancaster, Leeds, Leicester, East Anglia, Manchester, York, Cambridge, Edinburgh, the University of l’Aquila in Italy, and NERC’s Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and National Centre for Atmospheric Sciences. It was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and it was based in Danum Valley, one of the largest and most important protected areas of pristine lowland rainforests in Southeast Asia. Danum Valley is home to the joint Malaysia - UK Sekhar Foundation & Royal Society's South East Asian Rainforest Research Programme (SEARRP).
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The Department of Chemistry at the University of York has an excellent reputation for teaching and research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise the Department was ranked third among UK chemistry departments, with 75 per cent of research assessed as internationally excellent. It was rated by the NSS as the leading chemistry department in the UK for student satisfaction. The Department, which is led by prize-winners in all areas of chemistry, has over 50 members of academic staff, more than 400 undergraduate students, 160 graduates and 80 research fellows. An academic department at the University of York has become the first in the UK to win the Athena Swan gold award for its commitment to women in science.
Contact details
Keep up to date
Subscribe to news feeds
