The package, presented by EU Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas in Brussels on 17 October, comes amid growing calls to include forest and deforestation issues in the global fight against climate change.
The value of standing trees
Selling timber and the land on which it is harvested remains a far more lucrative enterprise than keeping trees standing. Brussels hopes that a new global fund, known as the Global Forest Carbon Mechanism (GFCM), could provide developing countries the incentives necessary to undertake actions against deforestation.
Under the plans, the EU ETS would be a major source of funding for the GFCM, whereby 5% of auctioning revenues could provide up to €2.5 billion for the fund by 2020. Governments that sign up to a global climate change deal could also be allowed to use so-called deforestation credits towards their individual CO2 reduction commitments under a pilot scheme. Companies might then be allowed to use the system after 2020, subject to a review of the initial phase, the Commission said.
Based on announcements made on 17 October, the EU executive would then use this system as a basis to push for an international commitment to halt global forest cover loss by 2030, with a 50% reduction in tropical forest destruction by 2020.
Due diligence
Under the Commission's new proposal for a framework regulation on illegal logging, traders of forestry products will need to make "sufficient guarantees that the timber and timber products they sell have been harvested according to the relevant laws of the country of origin," according to a press statement.
Brussels hopes this sort of due diligence obligation on traders will "send a strong message to operators wanting to access the EU market". It will be up to EU member states to decide on any penalty regimes, or even prison sentences, for traders who breach the rules.
