EU pushes back deforestation law by a year after outcry from global producers

The European Union has agreed to a one-year delay on the introduction of new rules to ban the sale of products that lead to massive deforestation – caving in to demands from several producer nations worldwide as well as opposition within the bloc.

Officials said that the 27 EU member states, the EU Parliament and the executive Commission reached an agreement in principle following weeks of haggling on whether the initial rules would have to be watered down even further.

Originally, the deal was supposed to kick in this month.

The deforestation law is aimed at preserving forests on a global scale by only allowing forest-related products that are sustainable and do not involve the degradation of woodland.

It applies to things like cocoa, coffee, soy, cattle, palm oil, rubber, wood and products made from them. Deforestation is the second-biggest source of carbon emissions after fossil fuels.

The lead negotiator among the different EU institutions, Christine Schneider, called the delay to implement nature protection rules “a victory”, adding it would give foresters and farmers protection from “excessive bureaucracy”.

Officials from leading exporters of affected commodities — including Brazil, Indonesia and the Ivory Coast – fear the regulation could act as a trade barrier, hit small farmers and disrupt supply chains.

Under the deal, the rules are now scheduled to kick in on December 30 2025 for large companies and June 30 2026 for smaller firms.

The different EU institutions will still have to individually approve the deal, but since they have already agreed on the measures, this is likely to be a formality.

In offering to delay the regulation by a year, the EU Commission said it heeded the complaints of several global partners about their state of preparedness for the rules.

Some EU governments, including in Austria and Germany, have also sought to water down the regulation or delay its introduction.

With the delay, some governments sought to add more measures that would weaken the original rules and allow for more exemptions.

Even if that was not agreed to in the current deal, Ms Schneider said the Commission had “committed itself to updating the Deforestation Law within a year”.

Greenpeace said the extension would condemn the world’s forests to another year of destruction.

It noted a UN finding that an area of forest about the size of Portugal is cut down worldwide each year.