EU Proposes Another Delay to Landmark Deforestation Law
(Bloomberg) -- The European Commission, the bloc’s executive branch, will seek to again delay the implementation of its landmark law to tackle deforestation, according to Jessika Roswall, the bloc’s environment commissioner.
The commission will propose to postpone it for another year, Roswall told journalists Tuesday, citing technical concerns. Once put forward, member states and the European Parliament will negotiate on the final shape of the law, potentially opening the door to further changes.
Sophisticated tracking systems are required to comply with the rules, which would be enforced using the threat of fines. Importers must have collected precise data identifying the plots of land where the goods were grown.
“Despite our efforts when it comes to simplification, we can’t do this without disruption for businesses and supply chains,” Roswall said. “We have concerns regarding the IT system given the amount of information that we put into the system. That is why we will seek with the co-legislators postponement of one year.”
The EU law aims to curb the loss of trees resulting from the import of key commodities like rubber, soy and beef. Yet it’s come under heavy criticism both at home and abroad for being too bureaucratic and penalizing smallholder farmers.
In late 2024, when the law was originally slated to take effect, the bloc rushed through a 12-month delay to appease those concerns. Pushing its implementation back another year would take the regulation’s implementation to near the end of 2026.
Some companies welcomed the news of a further extension.
“We were really in the hot phase now,” said Luis Batista, sales manager at Barth & Co., which imports parquet flooring in Germany and had been struggling to get accurate geolocation data on imports from China. “A delay is really, really helpful.”
The delay is likely to hurt the EU’s credibility on implementing its climate rules in the eyes of environmental groups. The bloc came up with its deforestation law after a landmark pledge made at the COP26 climate conference in Glasgow to curb the practice globally.
The news of the postponement comes just weeks before climate negotiators head to Brazil for the COP30 summit, which will be held on the edge of the Amazon rainforest.
“Every day this law is delayed equates to more forests razed, more wildfires and more extreme weather,” said Nicole Polsterer, a sustainability campaigner at Fern, which advocates for forests. “It almost defies belief.”
Member state officials and parliament are also likely to push for further simplifications to the rules and potentially the creation of a “zero-risk” deforestation category to cut red tape for EU countries.
“Simplifications must now follow as a matter of urgency,” Peter Liese, environmental lead of the center-right European People’s Party, said on X.
However, pushing back EUDR could curb pressures on food inflation for consumers. It would ease worries over availability of compliant coffee and cocoa beans in an already tight global market. Futures for both robusta and arabica coffee extended declines, falling more than 3%.
Soybean futures in Chicago were little changed, continuing to trade near a six-week low. Palm oil in Malaysia closed at the lowest since August.
(Updates throughout.)
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