Although many people in the Western world rarely think of palm oil it is actually the most widely traded vegetable oil on the planet. Palm oil as a product has little to do with climate change, but the way in which it is grown, does. It is derived from the fruit of the West African Palm Oil tree and these require a substantial amount of land to cultivate and grow. But Palm Oil is not only the most widely traded oil on the planet, production is actually estimated to double in the next decade. Palm oil trees only grow in certain climates and the majority of production, 86%, is concentrated in Indonesia and Malaysia. Here, vast areas of land are cleared of forests to make way for the palm oil cultivation. This deforestation which, in Indonesia alone, covers an area the size of Rhode Island every year, has contributed greatly not only to the destruction of livelihoods and species but also to climate change.

Carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere when trees are felled or burned and, when it comes to palm oil, this is partly why it contributes to the warming of the planet. Around 15% of global warming pollution is attributed to deforestation and, since palm oil production results in the largest amount of deforestation then, by definition, it is a major contributor to climate change.

The problem though is worse than it first appears because land selected for Palm Oil tree cultivation is often peat soil. This soil holds massive amounts of carbon. In fact it holds around 28 times as much as the trees that live on it. The result of disturbing the ground means this massive amount of carbon is also released into the atmosphere and has even more significant detrimental effects on climate change.