Scholz increases pressure on Commission to delay deforestation law

Germany’s Olaf Scholz is the latest high-profile official and the first head of government to call on the European Union to postpone the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR).

The German chancellor told a conference in Berlin that he had discussed the matter with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, advocating that “the regulation be suspended until open questions raised by the BDZV (German digital and newspapers publishers association) have been clarified”.

“To put it clearly: the regulation must be practicable,” Scholz said, referencing a letter the association wrote to the German government and the Commission, in which they criticised the law’s “impractical requirements” and “drastic bureaucratic burden on companies”.

In March, the publishers’ lobby asked the Commission “to alleviate the risks, sanctions and burdens” the new law creates as its application date (30 December) draws nearer. A similar letter penned by Brazil also reached Brussels recently.

The South American giant asked the Commission to revise the regulation to avoid hurting Brazilian exports to the EU. It decried the new rules as “a unilateral and punitive instrument that ignores national laws on combating deforestation”.

Regulation under fire

The EUDR requires companies to provide evidence that commodities such as cocoa, soy, palm oil, rubber, wood and coffee do not originate from deforested lands in hopes of contributing to the reversing of forest degradation worldwide.

However, the legislation has come under fire by EU trade partners and European officials alike. A group of EU countries led by Austria called for urgent revisions to the law, and German MEP Peter Liese from the European People’s Party - von der Leyen’s political family - recently made a similar call.

Even the World Trade Organisation (WTO) chief, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, has reportedly asked the EU to “rethink” the ban on deforested goods and what impacts it might have on global trade.

While the EU considers it “an important turning point” in the global fight against deforestation, NGOs and industries have raised concerns over the complexity of the new rules.

Getting traceability and due diligence systems ready requires more time than the 30 December deadline, while businesses are waiting for a series of technical documents from the Commission to guide them during the implementation of the law.

Countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia, the world’s biggest palm oil producers, have pointed out that the law penalises small farmers and will financially strain those least able to afford it - something that the Commission has refuted.

EU “very far” from planting three billion trees

Around 40 per cent of Europe’s land area is covered by forests, making this one of the most forested regions in the world. These forests currently absorb around 10 per cent of the total EU emissions.

In its biodiversity strategy for 2030, an ambitious plan to protect nature and reverse the degradation of ecosystems, the EU pledged to plant three billion additional trees throughout its territories and become the first climate-neutral continent. Net greenhouse gas emissions would be halved by 2030, compared to 1990 levels.

But four years later, the bloc is “very far” from making good on its pledge, as former European Commissioner for Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevičius admitted in an event organised in March by the EU executive.

According to the MapMyTree website, an online tool of the European Environment Agency, only 22.6 million trees have been planted so far, with Belgium, Ireland, the Czech Republic, Spain and France leading the effort.

Despite being amongst the top scorers on the list, France is also a far cry from reaching its target of planting one billion trees by 2030, as President Emmanuel Macron pledged back in 2022.

The commitment left environmentalists and researchers perplexed, with many worrying it is more focused on numbers and the commercial benefits of forestry than on actual biodiversity and climate objectives.

While various efforts to reforest the EU and stop the degradation of its ecosystems are underway, Commission President von der Leyen has called for a new incentive to boost nature protection.

“It is time to reward those who serve our planet,” von der Leyen said, explaining that this financial tool, inspired by the EU’s carbon trading scheme, will pair giving money to farmers with “nature credits” to “create a market for restoring our planet”.

[Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]