Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade

🌳  After months of uncertainty, the European Union has rejected last minute amendments to weaken the #EUDR, but agreed to postpone the regulation by one year. 💡 In our latest insight Trase Co-Directors Helen Bellfield and Toby Gardner and Global Engagement lead André Vasconcelos detail what needs to happen now to successfully implement the EUDR. ➡️The European Commission should prioritise delivering a robust benchmarking system. As deforestation varies within countries, Trase recommends risk classifications which distinguish between regions within countries and specific commodities. ➡️Member states should make swift progress on ensuring they are sufficiently resourced to enforce the EUDR. Competent authorities must be nominated and supported to put in place risk-based plans for targeting enforcement checks which are workable and pragmatic. ➡️Operators and traders should continue to work towards compliance by putting in place the necessary due diligence processes for assessing deforestation and legal risk in their supply chains. Trase data can be used as one source of evidence in the risk assessment step of the due diligence process. ➡️Producer countries should engage with the #EU and secure the necessary resources to develop their national traceability systems, support local producers in achieving readiness and learn from best practice examples. Read our latest insight: https://lnkd.in/e862pMZ6

Connect directly with the Dutch NCA and other stakeholders in our panel discussion on substantiated concerns and the EUDR – an essential element your company cannot afford to overlook. This event, as part of Amsterdam Cocoa Week, offers the private sector the opportunity to engage with key stakeholders and gain critical insights into the role of substantiated concerns as part of the EUDR. Companies failing to understand or prepare for the weight of substantiated concerns risk being the first targets of enforcement. 👥 Panel members - Meriam Wortel, Coordinating Specialist Inspector at Nederlandse Voedsel en Warenautoriteit - NVWA - Sarah Drost, Senior Research Consultant at AidEnvironment - Valentin Guye, Postdoctoral Researcher at UCLouvain and Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade 👤 Moderator Thomas Vaassen, co-founder and CEO of Meridia ▶️ Who should attend? This event is essential for cocoa industry stakeholders, sustainability professionals, legal and compliance teams, and anyone invested in preparing for the EUDR. ✔️ Register today: https://lnkd.in/ejR5ndmy #EUDR #AmsterdamCocoaWeek #Cocoa #SustainableCocoa

📊 Brazil soy supply chain data updated The latest Trase data for 2021-2022 shows that #deforestation and conversion linked to the expansion of soy production in Brazil increased in the period. 📉 Yet despite an increase in the total area of soy planted, Brazil saw a decrease in soy production between 2021 and 2022 due mostly to droughts caused by La Niña in the southern region of the country. Soy plantations expanded most in the Cerrado where in 2022 they were associated with deforestation and conversion of an area more than twice the size of the city of São Paulo. The Pampas also experienced high rates of conversion of natural vegetation to #soy. 📈 Due to its large volume of imports, #China remains the market most exposed to deforestation from Brazilian soy, followed by Brazil’s domestic market and EU imports. The large, established traders – Bunge, COFCO and Cargill – are those most exposed to deforestation and conversion in their soy supply chain. 🔍 Find out more about deforestation in the Brazil soy supply chain in our latest insight by Osvaldo Pereira and Paula Bernasconi: https://lnkd.in/eMbJzJ6t

Starting 2025 on the right foot(print): the UK Government recognises the GEIC Indicator as an Official Statistic! 👏 🇬🇧 This milestone cements the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator as a breakthrough tool for understanding the environmental impacts of #GlobalConsumption. Developed in partnership by the JNCC and SEI, the GEIC Indicator reveals the environmental costs behind the products we use daily - from deforestation and biodiversity loss to water scarcity. As featured in the latest Open Access Government article, this recognition underscores the tool’s credibility and value for policymakers, researchers, and organisations working to reduce environmental harm. What can the GEIC Indicator do? ✔️ Track environmental impacts of consumption by commodity, country, and year ✔️ Provide actionable insights, such as the deforestation linked to UK imports of specific products ✔️ Support global efforts under #Target16 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to enable sustainable consumption This is a significant step forward in promoting transparency and accountability for our global consumption patterns. 🔗 Read the full article in Open Access Government ⤵️ #SustainableConsumption #EnvironmentalImpact #GlobalBiodiversity #DEFRA

🔍 From soy in Brazil to palm oil in #Indonesia and cocoa in Côte d'Ivoire, Trase provides the most comprehensive open-access database on the global trade in these #forest risk commodities. We provide a high-resolution view of where deforestation linked to these flows is concentrated, and quantifies its exposure to trading companies and importing markets. ❓ How exactly does Trase choose the combination of countries and commodities? 🎥Watch Jolene Tan, our former Communications Lead, explain the process of prioritisation ⬇️ Find answers to our other FAQs here: https://lnkd.in/dHmMGBDA

🎧 PODCAST | Introducing the first episode of our new series, #CurrentsInSustainability. "I believe that land is central to who we are. In my case, land is very, very important because it provides me peace," says guest Irene Suarez Perez in this first episode, Grounds for Change. The series captures conversations between experts unpacking the impactful forces they foresee shaping climate policy and sustainable development in the year ahead. Hosted by SEI Senior Research Fellow and Co-Director of Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade, Toby Gardner, this episode explores the growing urgency around #land in 2025 and beyond. We delve into the fears and hopes surrounding land conversion, degradation and restoration, and how these issues shape the work of our three guests: Irene Suárez Pérez from Global Optimism and Restor, along with SEI's Selorm Kobla Kugbega and Monica Trujillo. 🎧 Listen now: https://bit.ly/4hpoM7W #SEICurrents #Degradation #Restoration #ClimatePolicy #SustainableDevelopment

🌍 Nearly all the food we eat, clothes we wear, and cosmetics we use come from commodities grown in fields and forests around the world. Our consumption creates demand for these products, but it also drives deforestation, water scarcity, and excess use of fertilisers and pesticides. 🌱 🐟 These impacts harm habitats, degrade freshwater ecosystems, and affect all life in surrounding areas. Understanding the environmental cost of consumption is critical to developing effective policies for a sustainable future. 🌿 Fortunately, there’s growing recognition of these issues. This growing interest is reflected in internationally-agreed consumption targets in both the Global Biodiversity Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals. To meet these international objectives and develop effective policies to ensure consumption is sustainable, governments need to understand these environmental impacts, where they are happening, and what is causing them. JNCC’s Evidence Specialist, Ethan Workman, introduces the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) Indicator which can help us answer this question, in this Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs blog https://lnkd.in/esHYyQMk The GEIC Indicator is a tool designed to provide insights into the environmental impacts of consumption worldwide. It helps governments and organisations make informed decisions to address sustainability challenges. SEI — Stockholm Environment Institute, York Environmental Sustainability Institute (YESI), Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade, GCRF Trade, Development and the Environment Hub (TRADE Hub) #SustainableConsumption #EnvironmentalImpact #Consumption #TogetherForNature #TurningScienceIntoAction #ForNaturePeoplePlanet

🌳 The EU deforestation regulation (EUDR) is due to be implemented by the end of 2025 after the European Union postponed the regulation by one year. Though disappointing, this delay must be utilised efficiently to firm up the guidance, processes and partnerships necessary to achieve deforestation-free supply chains. ❓ How can the Commission, EU member states, companies and producer countries improve implementation efforts to ensure maximum benefits while minimising negative impacts? 📈 Apart from delivering the critical risk-benchmarking and IT systems, the Commission should work with producer countries to strengthen national traceability systems and support for smallholders to prove compliance.  Competent authorities of #EU member states must be nominated and supported to put in place risk-based enforcement plans. 🤝 While regulated companies should focus on putting together the due diligence processes for compliance, producer countries can use this time to secure the necessary resources to ensure readiness and emulate best practice. Learn more about Trase’s recommendations for making effective use of this additional year: https://lnkd.in/e862pMZ6 #Deforestation #EUDR

💡 In 2024, we delivered some powerful insights that took a closer look at a range of topics including implications surrounding the #EUDR, and analysis of new global #data on commodity-driven #deforestation. Here are our most popular pieces in the past year - have a read if you haven’t already: 1️⃣ A new global dataset, from the DeDuCE (Deforestation Driver and Carbon Emission) model developed at Chalmers University of Technology, a Trase partner, provides unique country-level estimates of agriculture and forestry-driven deforestation and carbon emissions from 2001–2022 for more than 180 commodities. It reveals six insights to inform the transition to zero-deforestation trade in beef, soy, palm oil and other important commodities ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/ejfSvcyv 2️⃣ Trase mapped the supply chain for cocoa from Côte d’Ivoire produced in 2022 and found that around 65% of the country’s exports were indirectly sourced via additional intermediary suppliers, making traceability more challenging. The huge variation in the traceability of Ivorian cocoa raises the importance of supporting smallholder farmers to avoid excluding them from the #EU market, as companies prepare for #EUDR compliance ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eXx9wXHe 3️⃣ Did you know that between 2019 and 2021 the EU was exposed to 190,500 hectares (ha) of deforestation on average every year from its direct imports? Trase assessed and created a summary factsheet for each EU member state highlighting its exposure to deforestation from imports of products included in the EUDR ⬇️ https://lnkd.in/eCt3Fgv9

A reminder about a new #job opportunity with the Sustainable Consumption and Production Team at SEI York at the University of York. The role will involve working on our Trase - Intelligence for sustainable trade programme and supporting the ongoing development of the Global Environmental Impacts of Consumption (GEIC) indicator with the JNCC. Apply here: https://lnkd.in/gx5TYkiw