It is concluded that the three most significant environmental impacts associated with the production of both certified and non-certified palm oil are global warming, nature occupation and respiratory inorganics.

RSPO-certified palm oil performs better than non-certified for global warming and nature occupation witharound 35% and 20% lower impacts respectively. On the contrary, certified palm oil has a slightly higher contribution to respiratory inorganics than non-certified.

For other impact categories, certified palm oil performs better for respiratory organics and photochemical ozone impacts, while higher impacts are found for eutrophication and acidification.

No conclusions can be drawn for the following impact categories: human toxicity (carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic), ecotoxicity (aquatic and terrestrial), non-renewable energy, mineral extraction, ionizing radiationand ozone layer depletion.

Hence, for two important impact categories, global warming and nature occupation, this study demonstratesthat considerable environmental gains are achieved by RSPO-certified palm oil productionover non-certified production.

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