Palm Oil Developments No.54 (June 2011) p19-23

Water Footprint for the Oil Palm Industry

SUBRAMANIAM, Vijaya, HALIMAH Muhammad , ZULKIFLI Hashim , CHOO Yuen May

Currently carbon footprint is such a catchphrase in the world that it has become a must for responsible producers to quantify their carbon footprint or also known as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The European Union (EU) directive has imposed a non-tariff barrier on the imports of palm biodiesel based on GHG emissions calculations. If the exporters do not meet the minimum GHG savings when compared to fossil fuel, their exports will not qualify for the incentives making the feedstock higher in price. This has brought a big impact to the oil palm industry on the market access of palm biodiesel to EU. Just as how carbon footprint or GHG emissions are playing such an important role in the oil palm industry, the next thing the world is moving into is water footprint. For example the study by Gerbens et al. (2009) came to conclusions that jatropha is not a suitable feedstock for biodiesel production due to its high water footprint. This study compared the water footprint between soya, rapeseed and jatropha, and the recommendation was that soya is the best crop for biodiesel just based on the water footprint. This kind of studies shows the trend of how water footprint is slowly being used as an indication for choosing a feedstock, just as how carbon footprint is being used now.



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