The evidence is irrefutable: Sweden has spent the last few years trying to frustrate any EU-proposed measures to protect forests. A brief – and far from comprehensive – snapshot of this unhappy record reads as follows: In 2021, a leaked EU Forest Strategy draft revealed European Commission (EC) plans to reduce the clear-cutting that’s ravaged Europe’s forests. Sweden expressed its opposition– and the final wording on clear-cuts was severely weakened. In 2023, Sweden was one of only five Member States to vote against the EU’s Nature Restoration Law, which sets binding targets to end the spiral of destruction afflicting the EU’s ecosystems, including by improving the health of Europe’s chronically degraded forests. Again in 2023, Sweden opposed a policy designed to protect the planet: the Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF) Regulation, which accounts for emissions from land and forests. The Swedish government explicitly stated that it would not support the LULUCF proposals because of the restrictions they placed on Swedish forestry. Sweden’s stance on the groundbreaking EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) has also been marked by obstruction. The law aims to address the biggest driver of deforestation on the planet: clearing land for agricultural production, and was passed with huge public support and an overwhelming democratic mandate. Earlier this year, Sweden’s agricultural ministry (along with others) called for its implementation to be delayed – which the European Commission recently heeded by proposing a one year delay for the law’s application. To these examples can be added others, including Sweden’s efforts to bulldoze key revisions out of the Renewable Energy…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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South Africa Today – Environment
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