The European Commission has said that the EU Deforestation Regulation will not go into effect for another year because they are worried that the digital infrastructure needed to enforce the law is not ready. Jessika Roswall, the Environment Commissioner, wrote to lawmakers to confirm the delay. This is the second time the regulation, which was supposed to go into effect for big companies this December, has been pushed back.
The EU Deforestation Regulation, which went into effect in 2021, is meant to stop EU consumption from causing deforestation. It requires businesses that deal in palm oil, beef, timber, soy, cocoa, coffee, and rubber to make sure that their supply chains do not cause deforestation after 2020. People praised the rule as a groundbreaking way to deal with large-scale deforestation caused by imports. It is thought that EU consumption causes about 10% of forest loss around the world.
Roswall pointed out that the IT system that supports the law isn’t ready to handle the amount of data that is expected. She warned that “the system could slow to unacceptable levels or face repeated disruptions,” and she stressed that the delay is meant to deal with risks of practical implementation rather than outside trade pressures.
Brazil, Indonesia, and the United States are among the trading partners that have opposed the regulation, saying that following it could raise costs and limit exports. Countries in the EU, like Poland and Austria, have raised concerns about whether their own producers can meet traceability standards. The law had already been put off for a year because of earlier compromises, and the European Parliament just turned down a plan to use a benchmarking system to rank countries by how likely they are to deforest.
Environmental groups have said they are worried that the delay could hurt Europe’s efforts to go green. The Commission’s announcement shows how hard it is to enforce complicated sustainability rules across global supply chains while also taking into account trade and technology readiness.
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