The UK government will introduce legislation to ensure supermarkets remove products linked to illegal deforestation from their shelves, similar to legislation recently enacted in the European Union.
Companies with a global annual turnover of £50 million (about €58 million) and using more than 500 tonnes of regulated products per year will be banned from using them if they come from illegally used land.
The proposed legislation would cover palm oil, cocoa, beef, leather and soybeans, according to Bloomberg.
“Globally, we are losing forests the size of about 30 football fields every minute,” Environment Minister Steve Barclay said on Saturday in a statement. “That’s why we are cleaning up our supply chains to make sure big British companies are not responsible for massive deforestation.” illegal.
Preserving forests is key to combating climate change and protecting biodiversity and endangered animals.
In the UK, a so-called Environment Bill has been in the works since 2020, and the main difference from the legislation passed by the EU this year is that it will ban trade in products grown on all recently deforested land anywhere in the world. The proposed UK law would focus solely on the illegal destruction of forest land.
“Creator. Devoted pop culture specialist. Certified web fanatic. Unapologetic coffee lover.”