GLP Webinar: Prioritizing partners and products for the sustainability of the EU’s agri-food trade

The EU wants to ensure greater sustainability in agricultural trade with the Global South - with the aim of minimising the environmental and climate-damaging effects of importing crops such as soya, palm oil, coffee, and cocoa. However, this aspiration is often not fulfilled in practice. Researchers from the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ) and the University of Rostock have developed a new approach to identifying options for the sustainable trade of agricultural products and published their findings in One Earth. This approach requires a refined analysis that shows how relevant the individual products are for the EU and the country of origin and what leverage effect they have. The researchers found that over 80% of the land deforested for EU production is used to grow soya, palm oil, cocoa, and coffee.
On 1 October 2024, lead author Yves Zinngrebe discussed the paper and its findings in a webinar hosted by the Global Land Programme's Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems Working Group.
Read the One Earth Paper: doi.org/10.101...
Read the press release about the paper: www.ufz.de/ind...
Learn more about the Global Land Programme: glp.earth/
Learn more about the GLP Telecoupling Research Towards Sustainable Transformation of Land Systems Working Group: glp.earth/how-...