Palm oil expansion in Southeast Asia is strongly associated with conversion and degradation of peatland. Find that past studies have generally significantly underestimated emissions from palm oil grown on peatland. In particular, this will have resulted in underestimation of the indirect land use change emissions from many biofuels. Suggest that 86 CO2-eq ha-1 yr-1 (over 50 years) or 100 CO2-eq ha-1 yr-1 (over 25 years) represent the best available estimates of typical emissions from peat decomposition in palm plantations.

This document contains the White paper presented at Workshop on climate change and disaster losses: understanding and attributing trends and projections at Hohenkammer, Munich during 25