**MEMO** 1 (4 )

Oil R&T/ Olli Mustonen, Steven Gust 8 September 2010

**Neste Oil Corporation** Busi ness ID 1852302 - 9 Domicile Espoo
www.n esteoil.com **Carbon sequestration by oil palm plantations**  Wewould like to draw your attention to what we feel is a major shortcoming with the data used for the estimation of carbon sequestration by oil palm in Southeast Asia. Webelieve this is a serious issue and th at it should be taken into consideration in the ILUC estimations for oil palm. In the estimation of C stock change, EPA uses the W inrock database (Annex 1) The value used by Wi nrock for carbon stocks of oil palm is taken from Excel sheet on Emissions Factors data and is 68.0 tonne for Perennial C stock (MT C ha - 1 ). The reference for this value is given in the Methods worksheet as: Carbon stocks for oil palm (Malaysia, Indonesia) were estimated using the value from Table 5.3, 2006 IPCC GL AFOLU (68 t C/ha) ( http://www.ipccnggip.iges.or.jp//public/2006gl/vol4.html ) Table 5.3 can be found from the chapter on Cropland. Table 5.3 is the Default above - ground biomass for various types of perennial croplands and can be found on page 5.9. The value for oil palm in SE Asia is 136.0 t / ha of above ground biomass. Assuming 50% of this biomass is carbon, the value of 68 tC/ha is derived. This value is used by W inrock. In Table 5.3 there is no reference to how this value was obtained. This means that it is not possible to review the methodology of the actual measurements or the data sampling size etc. In order to better understand how much carbon oil palm plantations sequester over their lifetime we have found the following references (a review is given below) : 1. Syahrinudin (2005):The potential of oil palm and forest plantations for carbon sequestration on degraded land in Indonesia. - Ecology and Development Series No. 28 2. Wi cke, B., Dornburg, V., Junginger, M., and Faaij, A. (2008): Different palm oil production systems for energy purposes and their greenhouse gas implications.
– Biomass and Bioenergy 32. 1322
– 1337 3. Mathews J., Tan T. H., and Chong K. M. (2010): Indication of Soil Carbon Augmentation In Oil Palm Cultivated Inland Mineral Soils of Peninsular Malaysia.
– The Planter, Kuala Lumpur, 86 (1010): 293 - 313 4. Murdiyarso, D., van Noordwijk, M., Wa srin, U. R., Tomich, T. P. and Gillison, A. N. (2002): Environmental benefits and sustainable land use options in the Jambi transect, Sumatra. Journal of Vegetation Science 13 **:** 429
–438 (not found from literature sources but is referenced by many others) All of these studies point to the fact that there is significant below ground carbon in the form of pant root biomass and soil organic carbon (SOC) which is the microbial biomass and easily- decomposed plant residues A summary of the findings is given in Table 1. Please note that although there are differences in methodologies, all s tudies show significant amounts of soil organic carbon and below ground biomass. W e believe that there is now enough data available in order to make a Tier 2 estimation for oil palm plantations by IPCC.**Project report** 2 (4 ) Internal Oil R&T/Steven Gust 8 September 2010

**Neste Oil Corporation** Busi ness ID 1852302 - 9 Domicile Espoo www.nesteoil.com Table 1. Estimated and measured carbon sto rages on oil palm plantations. Please refer to the attached articles
. Carbon content t C/ha Above

ground biomass calculated as t C/ha Below

ground biomass calculated as t C/ha soil organic

carbon (SOC) t C/ha Soil depth

measured Total

Ma x Total

average
Wi nrock/IPCC 68 NA NA 68 68 Murdiyarso et al 2002 91 91 Wi cke et al. 2008 55 40 estimation 95* 95* Mathews et al. 2010 40.9 13.5 55 - 81 45 cm 135 126 Syahrinudin * 2005 40.9 (16.6 -

84.5) 13.5 183 5 m 296 238
**Recommendation** Werecommend that EPA take into consideration these articles in the estimation of I LUC in order to obtain a more representative picture for oil palm carbon sequestration. Wewould additionally like to offer the possibility of a brief teleconference regarding this issue**Project report** 3 (4 ) Internal Oil R&T/Steven Gust 8 September 2010

**Neste Oil Corporation** Busi ness ID 1852302 - 9 Domicile Espoo www.nesteoil.com **Short Review of Key**

**A rticles**  Syahrinudin (2005):The potential of oil palm and forest plantations for carbon sequestration on degraded land in Indonesia. - Ecology and Development Series No. 28 Biom ass in oil palm stand ing stock, other vegetation, litter on above ground and soil organic matter has been extensively measured and found to be 53,9 t C/ha for biomass and a total carbon content of 183 t C/ha over the plantation cycle of 30 years. The article can be appraised a s being highly reliable due to the advanced me thodology. Measured data demonstrates that palm oil cultivation sequestrate carbon especially in soil. The largest average value of SOC over plantation cycle of 30 years 257,7 t C/ha. However the author recomm ends the lower estimation of 183 t/ha due to extremely high value measured under 10 year old plantation. The results ma y be criticized due to the lack of sample size but they are consistent with larger data of soil fertility study concerning soil depth of 45 cm (Mathews et al. 2010).

Mathews J., Tan T. H., and Chong K. M. (2010): Indication of Soil Carbon Augmentation In Oil Palm Cultivated Inland Mineral Soils of Peninsular Malaysia.
– The Planter, Kuala Lumpur, 86 (1010): 293 - 313 A larger data set of soil fertility study concerning a soil depth of 45 cm is analyzed within the article in which oil palm plantation is shown to sequestrate carbon over repeated plantation cycles from 55 to 80 t C/ha respectively. Other studies and impact of more sustain able cultivation methods are discussed. The soil organic carbon value measured by Mathews et al. is less than half of average SOC measured by Syahrinudin and only depth of 45 cm is studied, therefore the value of **80,8 t SOC/ha** can be considered as most rel iable result defensible and comparable to other studies.**Project report** 4 (4 ) Internal Oil R&T/Steven Gust 8 September 2010

**Neste Oil Corporation** Busi ness ID 1852302 - 9 Domicile Espoo www.nesteoil.com