Palm oil: Emissions
Peat, forests and the oil with a heavy footprint
What this tab covers The greenhouse-gas footprint of the commodity at a global level, split by lifecycle phase: extraction (or farming), refining and processing, movement, usage, and recycling or end of life. Intensities are per unit of product; the global total combines intensity with world output. Also covers other environmental impacts and the main levers to cut emissions. Emission intensity 7.30 t CO2e per t range about 2-4 on mineral soils with methane capture; well above 10 on recently drained peat (indicative) · cradle-to-retail global mean including land-use change, GWP100 Global emissions per year 580 Mt CO2e per year 2026/27 · 7.3 t CO2e/t x 78.9 Mt (indicative upper estimate; a median-type intensity of 3.8 would give about 300 Mt)Per kg (or t) of refined palm oil at retail; cradle-to-retail including land-use change. Intensity: Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data (indicative); Alcock et al. 2022, Science of the Total Environment 829:154539 (median 3.81 kg CO2e/kg refined oil across oil crops; rapeseed 2.49, soybean 4.25). Global total: derived from USDA PSD with Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data (indicative).
Share of footprint by lifecycle phase
Extraction 63% Refining / processing 33% Movement 4%Footprint by lifecycle phase
| Phase | Intensity | Share | Main sources of emissions | Notes | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Extraction | about 4.6 t CO2e/t (land-use change about 3.1, farm about 1.5) | 63% | clearing forest and draining peat, fertiliser N2O, peat oxidation | converting Southeast Asian peat swamp forest to plantations accounts for about 0.44-0.74% of global GHG emissions | Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data; stage shares approximate (indicative); Nature Communications 2020 (s41467-020-14298-w) |
| Refining / processing | about 2.4 t CO2e/t (milling, refining and packaging) | 33% | methane from palm oil mill effluent (POME) ponds; refining heat; bottles and packaging | mills produce large volumes of POME; methane capture removes most of the mill emissions | Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data; stage shares approximate (indicative) |
| Movement | about 0.3 t CO2e/t (transport and retail) | 4% | tankers through the Strait of Malacca; truck to mills | palm is shipped in bulk tankers, so movement is a small share | Poore & Nemecek 2018 (Science), via Our World in Data; stage shares approximate (indicative) |
| Usage | not in the boundary | – | food frying; biodiesel (Indonesia's B40 mandate from 2025); soaps and oleochemicals | biodiesel combustion CO2 is biogenic, but land-use change can erase the saving | not quantified |
| Recycling / end of life | not applicable as recycling; residues used | – | shells and fibre fire mill boilers; empty fruit bunches as mulch; used cooking oil to biodiesel | used cooking oil biodiesel saves roughly 80-90% against fossil diesel | EU Renewable Energy Directive II default values (indicative) |
Other environmental impacts
Deforestation, peat fires and haze, and loss of orangutan and other habitat. On the other side, palm gives about 4-5 t of oil per hectare (GAR reported 5.0 t/ha of palm products in 2025), several times soybean or rapeseed, so it uses less land per tonne.
Levers to cut emissions
- Methane capture (biogas) at mills, which removes most POME emissions
- No deforestation, no peat commitments (RSPO, NDPE) and rewetting of drained peat
- Replanting with higher-yield seed to raise oil per hectare instead of clearing new land
- Use of mill residues for energy in place of diesel
India
India is the largest palm oil importer (25.2% of 2024 import value; 8.4 Mt forecast for 2026/27), so most of its palm footprint is imported land-use-change and mill methane. Its own oil palm mission plants on existing farmland in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the north-east (UN Comtrade 2024; USDA PSD; NMEO-OP).
Emission figures are indicative global averages from the life-cycle studies named; actual footprints vary widely by site, energy mix and method.