Forest defenders were stunned and concerned by the European Commission’s recent proposal for a 12-month delay in implementation of the EU’s new law to reduce global deforestation and forest degradation. While the European Parliament must still approve that proposal, forest advocates battling the multibillion-dollar wood pellet industry and other commodity sectors fear that the extra time will give the biomass industry, other commodity suppliers and exporting nations an opportunity to weaken or undermine the law’s current modest requirements. “I think the biggest threat from a delay is that it’s an excuse to gut the law by giving more time to already aggressive industry opposition,” Heather Hillaker, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center in North Carolina, told Mongabay. “With climate change, every month matters when we’re trying to avoid [carbon] emissions from deforestation and forest degradation.” On Oct. 1, the European Commission, an executive body that proposes new laws for parliamentary consideration, called for a 12-month delay to the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). This wide-ranging law was approved in June 2023 and set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2025. Observers felt blindsided by the recommended delay and called the proposed postponement “a surprise” and “shocking.” Just one week prior, the commission had said there would be no delay to the EUDR. Large-scale soy plantations bordering rainforest in the southern Brazilian Amazon. Image by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay. The law requires commodity suppliers to certify that their goods (soy, coffee, cattle, cocoa, palm oil, rubber and wood products, including…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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