Now is the Time to Enforce, not Delay, the EU Deforestation Regulation

The World Resources Institute opposes the European Commission's proposal to postpone the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) until late December 2026, arguing that such a delay undermines the law's credibility and global climate goals. The statement emphasizes that necessary implementation tools are already available and that delaying enforcement penalizes businesses and countries that have already invested in compliance. It further warns against weakening the regulation by introducing 'no-risk' country categories, which could create loopholes for laundering deforestation-linked products into the EU market.

• The European Commission has proposed delaying the enforcement of the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) for a second consecutive year, with a new proposed implementation date of late December 2026.
• The EUDR aims to block the sale of commodities linked to forest degradation and deforestation in the EU market, specifically targeting beef, leather, palm oil, rubber, wood, soy, cocoa, and coffee.
• The World Resources Institute asserts that the technical requirements for implementation, including benchmarking, FAQs, guidance, and IT systems, have been available for several months.
• Introducing a 'no-risk' country category or exempting certain countries from declaration requirements would undermine the EUDR's due diligence system and allow products linked to deforestation, such as Brazilian leather, to be laundered into EU supply chains.
• The EU is responsible for 13–16% of global deforestation via imports, despite representing only 7% of the global population.

APA

van Veldhoven, S. (2025). Now is the Time to Enforce, not Delay, the EU Deforestation Regulation. World Resources Institute. https://www.wri.org/news/statement-time-to-enforce-not-delay-eu-deforestation-regulation

Chicago

van Veldhoven, Stientje. Now is the Time to Enforce, not Delay, the EU Deforestation Regulation. World Resources Institute, 2025. https://www.wri.org/news/statement-time-to-enforce-not-delay-eu-deforestation-regulation.

Wikipedia

{{cite press release |last1=van Veldhoven |first1=Stientje |title=Now is the Time to Enforce, not Delay, the EU Deforestation Regulation |publisher=World Resources Institute |date=24 September 2025 |url=https://www.wri.org/news/statement-time-to-enforce-not-delay-eu-deforestation-regulation |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@misc{vanveldhoven2025now, author = {van Veldhoven, Stientje}, title = {{Now is the Time to Enforce, not Delay, the EU Deforestation Regulation}}, publisher = {World Resources Institute}, year = {2025}, month = sep, url = {https://www.wri.org/news/statement-time-to-enforce-not-delay-eu-deforestation-regulation}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }