European Commission proposes year-long delay to crucial supply chain law, threatening 2,300 sq km of forest

• Announcement today comes less than a week after Earthsight published fresh evidence of EU consumption driving deforestation and human rights abuses overseas
• If approved by MEPs and European governments, the move would condemn 2,300 sq km of forest to destruction, resulting in 49 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions
• Earthsight research shows how European politicians calling for the delay have received party funding from companies complicit in forest destruction

The bulldozers were just about to switch off their engines. Now the European Commission wants to re-fuel them.

A handful of globally traded commodities are driving the ongoing destruction of the world’s forests. Through their consumption of beef, soy, palm oil, leather, rubber and wood imported from deforestation hotspots like Brazil and Indonesia, European consumers are deeply complicit. The EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR), meant to end that complicity by banning imports of these commodities produced illegally or on land deforested since 2020, is due to come into force at the end of this year. But now, yielding to growing pressure from the industries involved, the European Commission wants to press pause, delaying the law by 12 months.

If EU lawmakers agree to this proposal, its own studies indicate that some 2,300 sq km of forest will be destroyed.^[1] To put it another way, that means for every minute the law is delayed, another football pitch-sized area of forest will be bulldozed. The consequences for the climate are huge, with resulting emissions equivalent to those from 18 million cars.^[2]

Less than a week ago, Earthsight published fresh evidence showing why this law is urgently needed. In our new report, Secret Ingredient, we painstakingly trace how chicken sold in supermarkets and McDonalds outlets across Europe is being fed on soy grown on illegally deforested land in Brazil’s precious Cerrado eco-region, produced by agribusinesses we linked to illegalities, human rights abuses and corruption.

The European Commission’s announcement comes after months of intensive lobbying by industry bodies. Earthsight has found that many of those calling most loudly for delays or weakening of the EUDR are complicit in the harms the law is meant to prevent. They have profited from the destruction wrought by production of these commodities over the last 20 years. Their demands are self-interested ones.

The most impactful opposition has come not from overseas but from within the EU, started by the Austrian agriculture minister, Norbert Totschnig, on behalf of the country’s  farm and forestry lobby who speak of unnecessary burdens on their ‘low risk’ production of beef and wood.

Yet the Austrian livestock industry is complicit in tropical deforestation through its consumption of Brazilian soy for animal feed. Earthsight’s past research has shown how Austria’s world-leading timber processing multinationals have been guilty of importing illegally sourced wood.

Meanwhile, our research into the political party funding of some of the European politicians calling most vocally for delay or weakening of the EUDR, soon to be published, has identified funding from companies previously shown to have illegal logging and deforestation in their supply chains.

The European Commission says a delay is needed because some firms aren’t yet ready for the EUDR to come into force. But this law has been in the pipeline for years. Companies which have failed to prepare have only themselves to blame. The millions of forest-dependent people across the world currently suffering the consequences of unregulated EU consumption should not be made to endure a minute longer because of these companies’ complacency.

Since the EUDR was adopted last year, scientists have discovered that forests are even more important to the climate than we thought, and that the point at which it may be too late to save them could come sooner than anyone dared to imagine. Both the importance and the urgency of EUDR are undeniable; delaying it is not acceptable.

 European consumers do not want to be complicit for a day longer. Their elected representatives must stand firm in support of the climate, the world’s forests, and the millions of people dependent on them, and reject the Commission’s proposal.

^[1] Bougas, K, et al., European Commission (DG ENV) Service contract on EU policy on forest products and deforestation, Task 3 -Impact assessment on demand side measures to address deforestation. Finalreport. November 2021, p4. 

^[2] Ibid, p6: “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 49Mt CO2 emissions per year”; “annual CO2 reductions potential of 49Mt is equivalent to the CO2 emissions of 18 million cars.” Source