The European Commission plans to launch a deforestation initiative in September that will remove deforestation-related products from the supply chain to the European Union.
This was stated by the European Commissioner for Environment, Ocean and Fisheries Virginijus Sinkevicius in an interview with Euronews.
“Shortly after the summer break, in September, we are going to present one of our main deforestation initiatives, with which we want to fully explore the supply chain so that there are no products associated with deforestation,” said the European Commissioner.
According to him, this will be a big breakthrough that will raise the bar for European standards.
According to an April report from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the EU is the world’s second-largest importer of logged timber and logging-related products (16%), including from tropical forests. China ranks first (24%).
Based on 2017 data, WWF concluded that imports of felled timber and related products into the EU generated 116 million tonnes of CO2 emissions. At the same time, Germany, Italy, Spain, Great Britain, the Netherlands, France, Belgium, and Poland account for 80% of imports.
