EU proposes to delay landmark anti-deforestation law by 12 months

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By Bart H. Meijer and Maytaal Angel

BRUSSELS/LONDON (Reuters) -The European Commission said it would propose delaying implementation of a law banning the import of commodities linked to deforestation by a year on Wednesday, following calls from industries and governments around the world.

The law has been hailed as a landmark in the fight against climate change, but countries and industries from Brazil to Malaysia say it is protectionist and could end up excluding millions of poor, small-scale farmers from the EU market.

There were also widespread warnings from industry that the EU deforestation regulation, or EUDR, would disrupt the European Union’s supply chains and push up prices.

Some 20 of the EU’s 27 member states asked Brussels in March to scale back and possibly suspend the law, saying it would harm the bloc’s own farmers, who would be banned from exporting products grown on deforested land.

The proposal would need the approval of the European Parliament and member states, the Commission said. It added that it was also publishing additional guidance documents.

EU leaders have watered down numerous environmental measures this year to try to quell months of farmers’ protests over issues including the bloc’s green policies and cheap imports.

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Environmental campaigners slammed Wednesday’s move.

“Ursula von der Leyen might as well have wielded the chainsaw herself. People in Europe don’t want deforestation products but that’s what this delay will give them,” said Greenpeace.

WWF said the delay cast serious doubt on the Commission’s commitment to delivering on the EU’s environmental promises, while European forestry campaign group Fern, noting fires raging in the Amazon and beyond, called on the EU to strengthen rather than weaken its resolve to make the “desperately needed law” a reality.

The EUDR would have, from Dec. 30, required companies importing soy, beef, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, timber, rubber and related products to prove their supply chains did not contribute to the destruction of the world’s forests, or face hefty fines.

Companies would have to digitally map their supply chains down to the plot where their raw materials were grown, even on small farms in remote, rural regions.

Critics say this is exceedingly complex in supply chains that span the globe and involve not just millions of farms but multiple intermediaries whose data is not easily verifiable.

Eurocommerce, which represents the European retail industry, said it was grateful the Commission had acknowledged its concerns regarding compliance and possibly supply chain disruptions.

Brussels argues that the EUDR is necessary to end the bloc’s contribution to deforestation, the second leading cause of climate change after the burning of fossil fuels.

The EU is the world’s second largest contributor to deforestation through its imports, according to data from WWF.

(Reporting by Bart Meijer, Maytaal Angel and Julia Payne; Additional reporting by Helen Reid and Jake Spring; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Alex Richardson)