Latest news with #DeforestationRegulation
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
EU's plan to tackle global deforestation meets resistance at home
The world's forests are under threat: hundreds of millions of hectares of forest have been cleared in recent decades. The European Union wants to slow this trend – but calls to delay new rules are growing louder. Every minute of every hour of every day, the equivalent of eighteen football pitches of tropical rainforest was destroyed last year, according to data from the University of Maryland and the World Resources Institute (WRI). Tally it all up and the world lost 67,000 square kilometres of precious primary tropical forest in one year alone, an area twice the size of Belgium or Taiwan. Tropical forests, which harbour the highest concentrations of biodiversity, are the most threatened of any forest biomes on the planet. They are also sponges for CO2, helping to prevent global temperatures from rising even faster than they have. To minimize its contribution to world-wide deforestation and promote more sustainable practices among companies operating in the bloc, the EU has put forward the Deforestation Regulation (EUDR). However, as part of a wider push against the EU's Green Deal – a cornerstone climate strategy to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050 – member states are calling for further delays in putting the law into force. What does the EUDR aim to do? The EUDR's goal is to stop products from entering or leaving the European market if they are made by cutting down trees. Under this law, seven raw materials - cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soya and wood - may only be sold in the EU if no forests have been cleared for them after 2020. Firms importing the merchandise in question to the 27-nation bloc will be responsible for tracking their supply chains to prove goods did not originate from deforested zones, relying on geolocation and satellite data. Anyone who fails to comply with the regulations faces heavy fines of at least 4% of annual turnover in the EU. Satellite and DNA analysis will be used to verify the origin of the products and whether the requirements are being met. In the EU, Spain for example has a 'special responsibility' to reduce deforestation as it is the largest European importer of soybeans, according to a warning issued last year by the NGO Alianza Cero Deforestación. Companies are however far from meeting this tracking requirement. In Germany, for example, Environmental Action Germany (DUH) found that out of 32 surveyed companies across the meat, poultry, dairy, and feed industries in the catering, wholesale, and retail sectors, only four could trace their soy, and just three their palm oil, back to the original cultivation area. Taking into account the production and use of the seven listed raw materials, the European Commission last month unveiled its first benchmark that classifies countries based on deforestation risks. Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Myanmar are the only four countries considered to be at high risk of deforestation, while Brazil and Indonesia – in the past often criticized for their extensive deforestation of rainforests – are currently placed in the medium risk category. The list raised eyebrows among EU member states and environmental groups. Austria's minister of agriculture and forestry, Norbert Totschnig, claimed countries with high deforestation risks were now classified as medium risk countries, adding that this undermined the efforts of 'countries like Austria, which have very strict laws and operate sustainably." According to data from the WRI published on Statista in October, Brazil, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Bolivia and Indonesia were among the countries with the highest primary tropical forest losses in 2023, together accounting for a loss of 2.45 million hectares that year. Land&Forst Betriebe Österreich, an association of land managers, said: 'The current classification is incomprehensible and contradicts the clear wording of the regulation. Instead of a well-founded, data-driven assessment, political considerations seem to have played a decisive role.' Italian Agriculture Minister Francesco Lollobrigida said 'no one denies that Belarus and Russia should be sanctioned' but called it absurd to group countries like Italy – along with others in Europe – with nations in Africa that, in his view, have significantly lower regulatory standards. Environmental group Global Witness complained that the benchmarking system 'fell short," with 'countries like Brazil and Paraguay not categorized as 'high risk', despite the deforestation crisis consuming climate-critical forests' there. Why are EU member states pushing for further delays? Originally, the regulation was to apply from the end of 2024. The European Parliament however voted in December to postpone the application by one year, setting the entry into force on December 30, 2025 for large companies and June 30, 2026 for small and medium-sized enterprises. A group of 11 EU member states is now pushing to delay the application of the law even further, arguing that 'the requirements imposed on farmers and foresters remain high, if not impossible to implement." They also criticize the amount of bureaucracy required of farmers. In the document drafted by Luxembourg and Austria and signed by nine other countries – Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Czech Republic - the signatories said the requirements 'are disproportionate to the objective of the regulation, which is to prevent deforestation where it actually occurs.' 'We do not want to flood those affected in Europe with bureaucracy; we want to prevent illegal deforestation,' Totschnig said ahead of a meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels last week. His German counterpart Alois Rainer said 'the EU's initiative to curb global deforestation is a good proposal, but the bureaucratic impact on many countries in Europe goes too far." The countries are calling for the creation of a category of countries with zero risk of deforestation, which could be exempted from obligations and controls. Slovenia's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Food responded to questions from the Slovenian press agency STA saying that the country supported the initiative to further delay the law due to the excessive administrative burden for farmers, small forest owners, entrepreneurs and national authorities. It has issued a call for further simplification of the regulation, especially for the low-risk countries. In Romania, the Alliance for Agriculture and Cooperation (AAC), made up of four major agricultural organizations, said the law does not introduce real improvements for farmers and forest owners in the European Union. COP30 on the horizon Forest protection is high on the agenda of the COP30 United Nations climate conference that Brazil will host in November in the tropical city of Belem. The Forest Declaration Assessment, a broad coalition of forest-based activist and research groups, has said leaders must show progress on reversing the deforestation trend before convening in the Amazonian city. The EU takes part in negotiations at COP30 and is expected to push for stronger global action on deforestation and climate finance. But its credibility may be tested, as internal divisions grow and some member states are pushing back against parts of the EU's own Green Deal policies. The content of this article is based on reporting by AFP, Agerpres, ANSA, APA, CTK, dpa, EFE and STA as part of the European Newsroom (enr) project.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
India, EU can wrap up FTA talks before year-end: Piyush Goyal
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Paris: India and the European Union can conclude talks for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) before the end of this year, commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal said he said, there are certain sensitive issues on both sides that have to be resolved."We never had deadlines for an FTA, but looking at the rapid progress that we are making, my sense is that we could do it faster than the year end," Goyal that the two sides have complementary economies, Goyal said: "There are not too many issues where we have divergence of opinions. In most cases, what is of offensive interest to India does not hurt the EU economy, likewise goods and services that Europe would like to provide to India only support our growth story."The India-EU FTA has 23 chapters. India's bilateral trade in goods with the EU was $137.41 billion in fiscal 2024."We are at a very advanced stage and have made significant progress in different areas of our mutual growing relationship," Goyal said. "Having said that, in any trading relationship, there are certain sensitive issues on both sides which is what we have to resolve amicably and in the interest of both the EU and India," Goyal June 2022, India and the 27-nation EU bloc resumed negotiations for a comprehensive FTA, an investment protection agreement and a pact on geographical indications after a gap of over eight years. The talks had stalled in 2013 due to differences over the level of opening up of the India doesn't shy away from any subject for discussions like gender and sustainability in its FTA, it has certain concerns about the EU's practices and regulations such as Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and Deforestation Regulation. "We have certain concerns... likewise they have certain areas which they would like to discuss," he will have a bilateral meeting on Monday with MaroS Šefcovic, EU's commissioner for trade and economic security, interinstitutional relations and transparency.
Euronews
12-02-2025
- Business
- Euronews
Austrian trade and industry bodies call for root-and-branch review of Green Deal laws
Austria's leading trade and industry bodies have called on European Commission top brass to revisit a swathe environmental laws adopted under the flagship Green Deal of president von der Leyen's first EU executive, in letters seen by Euronews. The Corporate Sustainability and Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) was welcomed by unions and green groups last year after a fraught debate among governments and EU legislators, and requires businesses operating in Europe to demonstrate there is no environmental or human rights violations in their supply chains outside the EU. The CSDDD 'must either be significantly simplified or dismissed altogether', the head of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, Wolfgang Hattmannsdorfer, said in a letter to economy commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, dated 6 February and co-signed by the Federation of Austrian Industries. Hattmansdorfer is currently leading fractious coalition talks for the Austrian People's Party, which came second to the far-right Freedom Party in general elections last September, and has even been tipped as its next leader. 'In order to maintain competitiveness, we see a further urgent need for simplification in numerous legal acts of the Green Deal,' he wrote, specifying an incoming border tax (CBAM) based on the carbon footprint of a range of imported goods and the Deforestation Regulation – already delayed in a process spearheaded by Vienna. The list continued with a law banning products linked to forced labour from the EU market, the Packaging and Packaging Waste Direct designed to stem a rising tide disposable trash, plastic in particular, and a regulation on ecodesign intended to ensure products are more durable, recyclable and energy efficient. "Bureaucracy has reached proportions that can no longer be tolerated,' Hattmannsdorfer said in a statement on Tuesday (11 February). His joint letter followed an invitation-only discussion of the first omnibus proposal last week, dubbed a 'simplification roundtable' and slammed by unions and civil society groups who saw it as heavily skewed in favour of big business. A similar letter was addressed to the Commission's vice-president in charge of industrial strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, demanding that reporting obligations under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, which requires firms to publish details of their direct impact on the environment and society, should be 'significantly reduced'. Moreover, an EU list of investment areas deemed sustainable under EU law – with important ramifications for access to financial and policy support – should be 'urgently scrutinised' and aligned with 'important markets in the US, UK and Asia", Séjourné is told. Insurers joined the chorus today, also calling on Dombrovskis and Séjourné to revisit the CSDDD as the EU's executive arm makes good today on president von der Leyen's promise last week of a 'whole fleet of omnibuses' – a reference to a series of forthcoming anti-red tape packages. New Commission Work Programme In line with earlier leaks, the 2025 work programme published by the Commission today lists three omnibus packages to come out before the summer, with the sustainability package due on 26 February to be followed by reviews of rules on investments and mid-cap companies – a yet to be defined category larger than SMEs that is set to enjoy wide exemptions from reporting obligations. The industry association Insurance Europe said requirements need to be simplified and based only on a streamlined sustainability reporting directive. 'On CSRD, all work to develop new additional sector specific reporting should stop,' director general Thea Utoft Hoj Jensen said in a letter to the commissioners. 'Current transitional relief should be extended until there is clarity on how such reporting can work in practice, allowing companies to delay reporting on certain elements, including on their value chain,' Jensen wrote. The taxonomy, they said, is 'not proving useful for insurers' investment decisions', she added. 'Unnecessary bureaucracy' Large parts of the European business community, including leading lobby groups in Brussels, are seizing on the second von der Leyen presidency's refocus away from the Green Deal to enhancing competitiveness on the global stage, with the support of conservative lawmakers in the European Parliament. "We must preserve the core of the Green Deal, in particular the climate targets, but unfortunately there is far too much unnecessary bureaucracy and this must be removed,' the Europe People's Party environment policy lead Peter Liese said today. Patrick ten Brink, secretary general of the European Environmental Bureau urged the EU to 'resist the siren song of deregulation', but warned that the 2025 work programme drew into question von der Leyen's promise to 'stay the course' on the Green Deal. 'While the Commission reaffirms its commitment, it is deprioritising the very goals where the most effort is still needed -- particularly the Zero Pollution ambition,' ten Brink said.
