No planting on peat

When peat is developed for agriculture, land transformation and drainage leads to peat oxidation and a higher frequency of fires, resulting in an increase in GHG emissions and carbon loss. The easiest way to limit Carbon Dioxide (CO2) and other GHG emissions is to avoid the development of oil palm plantations on peat by refraining from developing new plantations in areas with significant quantity of peat. In line with this stipulation, FGV Palm Upstream Cluster has not acquired any new land containing a significant amount of peat (area of peat not more than 20% of the total land parcel) in 2016.*As planting on peat is perceived to contribute to GHG emissions, FGV made a commitment not to develop any new area significant in peat.

FGV is also committed to reducing GHG emissions through operational approaches such as methane capture, bio-composting and the cogeneration of electricity from methane released by palm oil mills effluent (POME). We convert waste from our plantations and mills into biogas whilst producing palm oil-based methyl ester (PME) for use in biodiesel. The Group is committed to actively pursue opportunities to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions through its operational approaches to manage and report its carbon footprint. FGV targets to reduce its GHG emissions by 25% from our baseline year of 2014 by 2020. The majority of our emissions are in the form of biogas, which naturally forms when POME decomposes in the absence of oxygen. The capture of biogas from POME is, therefore, a clear priority for us in mitigating and reducing our overall GHG emissions.

Lowering GHG emission

FGV is presently the single largest plantation owner of biogas plants in the world, with a total of 25 biogas plants in our stable. In 2016, our data shows that our biogas plants have managed to reduce 87,429 MT* of CO2 equivalent in 15 biogas plants. Our CO2 reduction efforts over the past four (4) years are illustrated below.