The Commission welcomes the provisional political agreement just reached between the European Parliament and the Council on anEU regulation on “zero deforestation” supply chains. Once adopted and implemented, the new legislation will ensure thatcertain essential goods placed on the EU market no longer contribute to deforestation and forest degradation in the EU or elsewhere in the world. Given that the EU is a major economy and a large consumer of these commodities, this stepwill help put an end to a significant portion of global deforestation and forest degradationand, consequently, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. This crucial agreement was reached just before the start of thebiodiversity conference (COP15), which aims to set nature conservation targets for the coming decades.
When the new rules take effect, all affected companies willbe required to exercise strict due diligence if they placethe following productson the EU marketor export them from theEU:palm oil, cattle, soybeans, coffee, cocoa, timber, and rubber, as well as products derived from them(such as beef, furniture, or chocolate). These commodities were selected based on an in-depth impact assessment that identified them as the primary drivers of deforestation caused by agricultural expansion.
Press release
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