HomeWorldEnvironmentBacklash Erupts Over Europe’s Anti-Deforestation Law • Leaders around the world are asking the European Union to delay rules that would require companies to police their global supply chains.
Backlash Erupts Over Europe’s Anti-Deforestation Law • Leaders around the world are asking the European Union to delay rules that would require companies to police their global supply chains.
September 22, 2024
Backlash Erupts Over Europe’s Anti-Deforestation Law • Leaders around the world are asking the European Union to delay rules that would require companies to police their global supply chains.
The European Union has been a world leader on climate change, passing groundbreaking legislation to reduce noxious greenhouse gasses. Now the world is pushing back.
Government officials and business groups around the globe have jacked up their lobbying in recent months to persuade E.U. officials to suspend a landmark environmental law aimed at protecting the planet’s endangered forests by tracing supply chains.
The uproar underscores the bruising difficulties of making progress on a problem that most everyone agrees is urgent: protecting the world’s population from devastating climate change.
The widespread, often illegal, destruction of tropical forests and woodlands contributes to the buildup of carbon emissions and rising temperatures, increases soil erosion and flooding and destroys habitats for thousands of animals, putting them at risk of extinction.
After years of debate, lawmakers approved a ban in 2023 on all products derived from seven key commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soybeans and wood — cultivated on newly cleared forest land. The result are rules that affect pretty much every item used in your home, slathered on your body or put in your mouth, from living room sofas and lipstick to soap and instant noodles. Penalties for traders are steep.
The difficulties are real, supporters of the current timetable say, but not insurmountable. More important, they argue, the costs of delay are worse.
The consequences of inaction are “already being felt within the E.U. through worsening droughts and forest fires,” a [coalition of 170 environmental and human rights organizations wrote in a letter](https://together4forests.eu/resources/11042024_EUDR%20implementation%20_Letter%20to%20President%20VDL.pdf) to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, opposing any postponement. Around the world, the letter said, “the destruction of forests and ecosystems continues unabated.”
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The European Union has been a world leader on climate change, passing groundbreaking legislation to reduce noxious greenhouse gasses. Now the world is pushing back.
Government officials and business groups around the globe have jacked up their lobbying in recent months to persuade E.U. officials to suspend a landmark environmental law aimed at protecting the planet’s endangered forests by tracing supply chains.
The rules, scheduled to take effect at the end of the year, would affect billions of dollars in traded goods. They have been denounced as “discriminatory and punitive” by [countries](https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/09/20/why-the-global-south-is-against-the-eus-anti-deforestation-law) in [Southeast Asia](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/14/business/economy/malaysia-palm-oil-european-union.html), Latin America and Africa.
In the United States, the Biden administration [petitioned](https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/united-states-asks-eu-delay-deforestation-law-letter-shows-2024-06-20/) for a delay as American paper companies [warned](https://www.afandpa.org/news/2024/why-eu-needs-reconsider-their-deforestation-law) that the law could result in shortages of diapers and sanitary pads in Europe. In July, [China said](https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/china-is-latest-country-to-oppose-eu-regulation-to-track-deforestation/) it would not comply because “security concerns” prevent the country from sharing the necessary data.
Last week, the chorus got larger. Cabinet members in [Brazil](https://www.ft.com/content/74d7fb09-64a8-4fac-9200-d0c20fe4f4d2), the director general of the World Trade Organization and even Chancellor [Olaf Scholz of Germany asked](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/19/world/europe/ursula-von-der-leyen-european-commission-president.html?searchResultPosition=1) the European Commission’s president to postpone the impending deforestation regulations.
The uproar underscores the bruising difficulties of making progress on a problem that most everyone agrees is urgent: protecting the world’s population from devastating climate change.
The widespread, often illegal, destruction of tropical forests and woodlands contributes to the buildup of carbon emissions and rising temperatures, increases soil erosion and flooding and destroys habitats for thousands of animals, putting them at risk of extinction.
After years of debate, lawmakers approved a ban in 2023 on all products derived from seven key commodities — cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soybeans and wood — cultivated on newly cleared forest land. The result are rules that affect pretty much every item used in your home, slathered on your body or put in your mouth, from living room sofas and lipstick to soap and instant noodles. Penalties for traders are steep.
The difficulties are real, supporters of the current timetable say, but not insurmountable. More important, they argue, the costs of delay are worse.
The consequences of inaction are “already being felt within the E.U. through worsening droughts and forest fires,” a [coalition of 170 environmental and human rights organizations wrote in a letter](https://together4forests.eu/resources/11042024_EUDR%20implementation%20_Letter%20to%20President%20VDL.pdf) to Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission’s president, opposing any postponement. Around the world, the letter said, “the destruction of forests and ecosystems continues unabated.”
[Read a copy of the rest of the article here](https://archive.is/BMsPB)
they all know they should. just all about the outsize pressure megacorps can put on governments.
How are we going to feed our overlord IKEA tho
Don’t back down europe