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Chinese and Indian palm oil consumers must share blame for the choking land-clearing fires in Indonesia

Venkatachalam Anbumozhi says global demand for palm oil is a key reason for burning peatland in Indonesia, and major importers, including China, should take responsibility for solving the problem

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Bizarrely, India, China and the EU – the world’s biggest palm oil importers – and Egypt, the US and Japan, which import vast quantities, have eluded global accountability.
Bizarrely, India, China and the EU – the world’s biggest palm oil importers – and Egypt, the US and Japan, which import vast quantities, have eluded global accountability.
At the Paris climate summit this month, representatives of 195 nations reached a historic agreement committing nearly every country on earth to lowering greenhouse gas emissions, to stem the tide of climate change.

China has committed to the most drastic cuts, reducing emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65 per cent by 2030. Indonesia aims to mitigate emissions by 29 per cent. In large part, the reductions will result from better management of Indonesia’s peatlands, whose burning is choking Sumatra, Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore in haze. Most blazes are man-made, for the purpose of clearing ground to sow palm oil, Indonesia’s US$18 billion industry.

The question is how Indonesia can wean itself from its dependency on palm production when no other industry is positioned to replace it

While the Paris accord makes provisions for green technology transitions, it does not – and perhaps could not – wean countries off existing economic dependencies. Indonesia, in other words, is unlikely to curb the palm cash crop as long as China, India and the West continue to import it in vast quantities.

It’s impossible to doubt the health hazards of peat-fire pollution, floating over Sumatra, and across Malaysia and Singapore. Presently, more than half a million people in Southeast Asia have been diagnosed with respiratory illnesses due to the smog; and in Sumatra and Central Kalimantan, Indonesian authorities have reported “very dangerous” levels of particulate matter, with visibility under 30 meters in 350 locations. The air of Beijing and New Delhi is clean by comparison.

READ MORE: Experts fear emissions from Indonesian fires could have ripple effect on atmosphere of the entire planet

Haze turned the skies above Singapore’s financial district a bright pink on a day in June this year. Indonesia’s burning peatlands are choking Sumatra, Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore in haze. Photo: EPA
Haze turned the skies above Singapore’s financial district a bright pink on a day in June this year. Indonesia’s burning peatlands are choking Sumatra, Borneo, Malaysia and Singapore in haze. Photo: EPA
From 2000 to 2010, Indonesia saw its forests diminish by 500,000 hectares each year; 41 per cent of Indonesia’s remaining forest land is considered degraded.
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