Insights

24 September 2025

Further EUDR delay: Is this ‘another’ chapter in EU’ s watering down of climate policy?

The EU is likely to delay implementation of the Deforestation Regulation #EUDR for a further year after the project commissioner notified the parliament representative that the IT system ‘won’t be ready’ on time.

EUDR (European Union Deforestation Regulation) aims to restrict purchase and consumption of products which are sourced from deforested land. It focuses on a specific set of high-risk commodities such as cattle, cocoa, coffee, palm oil, rubber, soy and wood, and their derivatives or end products (think chocolate, your Pax cupboard and tires), and among other measures demands deforestation free land, compliance with local laws, and traceability down to farm level.

Deforestation has many dire consequences globally, and existential consequences locally. Foremost is indigenous community displacement, loss of carbon sinks leading to accelerated climate change, the disruption of the water cycle which reduces rainfall and worsens drought, biodiversity loss which leads to the disruption of ecosystems and habitat loss (leading in turn to more extinctions).

While a delay due to a technical issue might seem minor, it represents a missed opportunity for immediate and tangible climate action. For critics of the EU’s climate policy, this delay feeds into a narrative that the EU is not as committed to its environmental promises as it claims to be. Whether this is an isolated technical hurdle or a symptom of a larger trend remains to be seen.