Guest essay by Eric Worrall
Has the European Union finally crossed a line? Coffee importers who cannot pinpoint the exact geographical source of their product, and prove their product is “deforestation free”, are set to be locked out of the common market, potentially starving European coffee lovers of their morning fix.
E.U. seeks to block import of commodities that drive deforestation
By Bryan PietschToday at 5:04 p.m. EST
The European Union on Wednesday proposed a measure that would seek to restrict imports to “deforestation-free” goods and materials for countries in the bloc, in an effort to fight consumer trends that drive deforestation around the world.
Importers of commodities including coffee, cocoa, soy, beef, palm oil and wood — as well as products made from those materials, such as furniture and chocolate — would be required to identify the geographic coordinates of the land where the materials were produced. To qualify as “deforestation-free,” the land cannot have been deforested or degraded since Dec. 31, 2020.
The proposal — which would need to be approved by the European Parliament and E.U. member states before coming into force — was hailed as “groundbreaking” action to combat the climate crisis by European Commission officials. “We can’t ask for ambitious climate policies from partners on the one hand and export pollution and support deforestation on the other,” said, Virginijus Sinkevicius, a Lithuanian European commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries.
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Copa-Cogeca, which represents the European agricultural industry, said the tiered system — which the proposal called a “key feature” — was “incompatible” with World Trade Organization rules. The system could have “serious consequences on the future trading relationships and distort the competition on both the EU and global market,” the group said in a statement. As a WTO member, Copa-Cogeca said, the E.U. must “fully respect” WTO rules. Representatives for the European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/11/17/eu-commodity-imports-deforestation/
I can’t help thinking the volume of paperwork generated by importers applying for approval for their product will cause more deforestation than any coffee growing operation.
Good. Maybe the price will come down for the rest of the world that remains sane.
Pitchforks and torches time. Gas and heating oil are one thing: don’t mess with their coffee!
That’s mighty big of them.
Creeps….
How much of this wood ended up in boilers in the EU?
WSJ
SÃO PAULO—Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest has reached a 15-year high, newly released data shows. The surge is prompting environmentalists and scientists to question the government’s willingness to meet the pledge it made at the COP26 climate summit earlier this month to end illegal woodlands destruction by 2028.
About 5,100 square miles of Brazil’s Amazon—bigger than the size of Connecticut—was denuded in the 12 months between August 2020 and the end of July, a rise of 22% from the previous year and the most deforestation in one year since 2006, according to Brazil’s space research agency, INPE.
The data release incensed environmentalists, who questioned the timing of the announcement. INPE uploaded its findings on deforestation onto a federal government database on Oct. 27—four days before the United Nations climate change conference began, an official at the agency said. The government only publicly released the data late Thursday.
Brazil’s Environment Ministry denied that it delayed the release of the INPE’s data, which are estimates based on satellite images. “We only had access to the data yesterday,” said a spokesman for the ministry.
Doesn’t seem that hard to beat. Check a map for an area that is not deforested, and claim that as the place where the coffee is grown. You really think someone is going to check? If they do, make a slight fix to the longitude, say sorry, and resubmit. Maybe just use your neighbor’s lat/long. Pay him a couple bucks for the privilege.
It must really grind the gears of the European Kommissars that the little black people won’t do as their told. Screw Europe.