Climate diplomacy: actions for strengthening the EU leadership role in forest protection and sustainable development

• Amazon is the largest rainforest in the world. It hosts 80% of the world's terrestrial biodiversity and it plays a significant role in soil conditioning, clean air, the water cycle, and a vital carbon store that slows down the pace of global warming. However, the most recent analysis suggests a sharp growth in deforestation over the past two months in particular, with about a hectare being logged every minute. Should this pace continue, the Amazon rainforest will rapidly reach a point at which natural recovery will be impossible.

Despite the challenges faced by the non-states actors – such as national governments obstructing their work and questioning their credibility – they can undertake projects on protection, transparency and sustainable development, acting as important partners tackling the climate change.

Climate diplomacy can also be pursued by trade agreements bound to and contingent upon fulfilment of sustainability criteria. In this sense, the European Union, as one of the largest importer of commodities in the world, has included provisions in trade agreements, ensuring the sustainable development in agrarian commercial partners.

Although the EU has already regulated illegal timber, illegal fishing and imports of minerals from conflict-affected and high-risk areas, it is still lacking legislation for agricultural trade linked to deforestation.

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