Jakarta, Indonesia Sentinel — Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft turned philanthropist, has highlighted the worsening climate crisis, revealing a significant contributor: palm oil production in Indonesia.
In a blog post dated September 21, 2024, Gates discussed how human activity generates 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases annually, with 7% coming from animal and vegetable fat production.
“To combat climate change, we need to reduce that number to zero,” Gates stated.
Acknowledging the challenge of eliminating animal fats from human diets, he emphasized the long-standing human dependence on these fats for essential nutrients and calories.
However, Gates sees potential solutions that don’t require harming animals or producing harmful emissions. One such innovation comes from a startup called Savor, where Gates himself is an investor. Savor uses a process that captures carbon dioxide from the air and hydrogen from water, creating a chemical reaction that produces fat molecules similar to those found in dairy, meat, and vegetable oils.
Beyond animal fats, Gates turned his attention to palm oil, one of the most widely consumed vegetable fats globally. “Palm oil is found in nearly every household product, from instant noodles and frozen foods to soap, deodorant, and even biofuel.”
The problem, however, lies not in the use of palm oil but in its production process. Native to West and Central Africa, oil palm trees thrive only near the equator, leading to widespread deforestation in equatorial regions, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia.
According to Gates, the deforestation associated with palm oil production has devastating environmental impacts. In 2018, forest destruction in these two countries alone contributed 1.4% of global emissions—more than the entire state of California and nearly equal to the global aviation industry.
Deforestation and the burning of forests release vast amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, accelerating global warming. Unfortunately, Gates pointed out, replacing palm oil is a daunting task. “Palm oil is cheap, odorless, and abundant. It also has a unique balance of saturated and unsaturated fats, making it incredibly versatile for use in both food and non-food products,” Gates explained.
Despite these challenges, Gates is optimistic about alternative solutions. He pointed to companies like C16 Biosciences, which has been working since 2017 to create a palm oil substitute using yeast-based fermentation. This process is emission-free, and although the resulting product is chemically different from traditional palm oil, it contains the same fatty acids, allowing it to serve similar functions in products.
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Gates remains hopeful that innovations like these can help reduce the environmental impact of palm oil production, while maintaining the versatility and affordability that make it so widely used.
(Ray)
