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The proposal of the community authorities, which must be approved by the governments of the European Union and the European Parliament, consists of requiring companies to demonstrate that their global supply chains are not contributing to the destruction of forests.
A new proposal from the European Commission seeks to give guarantees to its 450 million citizens that when they drink a coffee or eat a chocolate bar it will not have been at the expense of the trees.
According to the initiative launched this Wednesday, November 17, countries that want to export their products to the 27 nations of the European Union must ensure that their production chain has not had any link with the growing phenomenon of deforestation.
The law, which must be endorsed by the governments of the member countries of the community bloc and the Parliament, includes key basic products such as soybeans, beef, palm oil, wood, cocoa and coffee, as well as some of their derivatives, including leather, chocolate and furniture, but excludes others such as rubber.
Today, we have adopted new proposals to:
🏞️ stop deforestation
♻️ innovate waste management
🌍 make soils healthyThese are tools to move to a circular economy, protect nature and climate, and lift environmental standards in the 🇪🇺 and the world.#EUGreenDeal pic.twitter.com/XRBqbUOYDu
– European Commission 🇪🇺 (@EU_Commission) November 17, 2021
Under the proposed regulation, companies will need to collect relevant information on raw materials and products to ensure that they have not been produced on deforested or degraded land after December 31, 2020.
A proposal that was born at COP26
The law comes after world leaders from countries such as Brazil, China and Malaysia promised to end deforestation by 2030 at the recently concluded COP26 summit in Glasgow, Scotland.
While many European companies have expanding global operations, even in countries where environmental abuses are rife, there is currently no EU-wide requirement for them to certify that they do not contribute to deforestation.
This phenomenon in South America, Africa and Asia is mainly driven by the expansion of agriculture. And in Latin America, Brazil is leading the way when it comes to deforestation growth.
From 1990 to 2020, the world has lost 420 million hectares of forests, an area larger than the EU, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
With Reuters, EFE, AP
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