La lutte de l’Union européenne contre la déforestation globale: outils, perspectives et défis ouverts

Over the past three decades, due to the poor problem-solving capacity of inter- national environmental law and the decline of multilateralism, unilateral approaches to tackling global deforestation have become increasingly important. In this context, the European Union (EU) has adopted the Timber Regulation (2010) and the first (2009) and second (2018) Renewable Energy Directives, all of which have extrater- ritorial implications. Given the continuing high rates of deforestation, the EU has also been assessing which combination of instruments might be more effective in preventing global deforestation. This paper puts these EU regulatory efforts into context, analyses the interactions and specific features of existing instruments un- der EU law (such as due diligence requirements, sustainability criteria, certification schemes and bilateral agreements), and finally examines the challenges raised in relation to World Trade Organisation (WTO) law by some recent and potentially more effective mandatory instruments adopted by the EU on trade in products that contribute to deforestation. It concludes that while the existing legal framework contains promising avenues for future regulation, the design of sustainability criteria that are technically meaningful and feasible from a WTO law perspective requires, however, greater policy coherence.