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What lessons should the EU learn from the Deforestation Regulation controversy?

Publishing date
18 November 2024
Authors
Heather Grabbe
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The European Union’s Deforestation Regulation – passed in 2022 and intended to ensure that certain products imported into the EU do not contribute to deforestation – has triggered protest from trade partners and economic actors who say that the compliance system is not ready, causing the European Commission to propose a postponement of twelve months in its application date. Today the European Parliament also asked for amendments that would change its substance.

Postponement of implementation is justifiable, to give more time for the Commission to give better guidance on compliance. But the regulation should not be amended with a ‘no risk’ category added, as the Parliament has proposed, because that would increase forest destruction and add to uncertainty for economic actors. In 12 months, EU demand typically drives deforestation of 190,500 hectares, equivalent to three-quarters of Luxembourg’s territory.

EU demand drives 15% of global deforestation linked to trade, an outsized impact relative to its 5.5% of the world’s population. Moreover, a large majority of EU consumers want to avoid buying products that result from deforestation and find it difficult to find information on whether products are deforestation-free. Forest destruction destroys biodiversity, disrupts freshwater production and releases greenhouse gases.

There are important lessons to learn from this debate. The EU needs a more effective strategy for managing the external impact of the EU’s green agenda. Developing countries that are highly dependent on EU markets need specific financial and technical assistance to ease the transition to more sustainable production, to comply with EU requirements, and to build their own systems for preventing deforestation and improving forest protection. Economic actors need better consultation during the design stage, plus clearer, sector-specific guidance and a well-functioning system for compliance. Above all, the EU needs to maintain a consistent and reliable regulatory framework to incentivise sustainable agriculture and forestry.

Read the Policy brief 'Extra time for deforestation: lessons for future EU environmental legislation' by Heather Grabbe and Luca Léry Moffat.

The Why Axis is a weekly newsletter distributed by Bruegel, bringing you the latest research on European economic policy. 

About the authors

  • Heather Grabbe

    Heather Grabbe is a Senior fellow at Bruegel, as well as visiting professor at University College London and KU Leuven. The focus of her research is the political economy of the European Green Deal and how the climate transition will change the EU’s international relationships and external policies.

    She is a political scientist who has served as director of the Open Society European Policy Institute in Brussels, and earlier as deputy director of the Centre for European Reform in London. She conducted academic research at the European University Institute, Chatham House, Oxford and Birmingham universities, as well as teaching at the London School of Economics. From 2004 to 2009 Heather was senior advisor to then European Commissioner Olli Rehn, responsible in his Cabinet for policy on the Balkans and Turkey. She has written extensively on the political economy of EU enlargement, the EU’s external and neighbourhood policies, and the evolution of new policy agendas in climate, digital and the rule of law. Her columns appear in the Financial Times, Politico and other quality media.

    Heather earned her PhD at Birmingham University, and her first degree in politics, philosophy and economics at Oxford University, where she also had a post-doctoral fellowship. She is fluent in English, French and Italian, with working level German.

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WhyAxis newsletter
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English

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