Integrating sufficiency in the trade and biodiversity agenda of the European Union
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Übersichtsarbeiten › Forschung
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in: One Earth, Jahrgang 8, Nr. 7, 101347, 18.07.2025.
Publikation: Beiträge in Zeitschriften › Übersichtsarbeiten › Forschung
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Integrating sufficiency in the trade and biodiversity agenda of the European Union
AU - Roux, Nicolas
AU - Coenen, Johanna
AU - Fleischmann, Benjamin
AU - Cotta, Benedetta
AU - Dorninger, Christian
AU - Erb, Karl Heinz
AU - Haberl, Helmut
AU - Kaufmann, Lisa
AU - Mayer, Andreas
AU - Newig, Jens
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s)
PY - 2025/7/18
Y1 - 2025/7/18
N2 - In the European Union (EU), the scale of biomass extraction and use—particularly for livestock products, feed crops, and biofuels—overshoots the planetary boundary for biosphere integrity, jeopardizing biodiversity within and outside the EU territory. While EU policy occasionally acknowledges the need for sufficiency measures to limit biomass use, its ongoing trade liberalization agenda incentivizes the production and consumption of critical commodities, such as feed crops, meat, dairy, wood, and ethanol. We argue that the EU's biodiversity and trade liberalization agendas contradict each other from a sufficiency perspective. Here, we highlight how sufficiency-oriented trade measures—such as quotas and tariffs on critical commodities and sufficiency provisions in trade agreements—could reconcile these agendas. These measures, if paired with fair compensation for affected producers, could reduce trade-induced ecological pressures while avoiding protectionism. Integrating sufficiency in trade policy could substantially reduce global pressures on biosphere integrity and help the EU effectively meet its biodiversity objectives.
AB - In the European Union (EU), the scale of biomass extraction and use—particularly for livestock products, feed crops, and biofuels—overshoots the planetary boundary for biosphere integrity, jeopardizing biodiversity within and outside the EU territory. While EU policy occasionally acknowledges the need for sufficiency measures to limit biomass use, its ongoing trade liberalization agenda incentivizes the production and consumption of critical commodities, such as feed crops, meat, dairy, wood, and ethanol. We argue that the EU's biodiversity and trade liberalization agendas contradict each other from a sufficiency perspective. Here, we highlight how sufficiency-oriented trade measures—such as quotas and tariffs on critical commodities and sufficiency provisions in trade agreements—could reconcile these agendas. These measures, if paired with fair compensation for affected producers, could reduce trade-induced ecological pressures while avoiding protectionism. Integrating sufficiency in trade policy could substantially reduce global pressures on biosphere integrity and help the EU effectively meet its biodiversity objectives.
KW - bioeconomy
KW - bioenergy
KW - biomass
KW - diets
KW - eHANPP
KW - embodied human appropriation of net primary production
KW - international trade liberalization
KW - land use
KW - planetary boundary for biosphere integrity
KW - scale effect
KW - sufficiency
KW - trade agreements
KW - Environmental Governance
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105010684993&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101347
DO - 10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101347
M3 - Scientific review articles
AN - SCOPUS:105010684993
VL - 8
JO - One Earth
JF - One Earth
SN - 2590-3330
IS - 7
M1 - 101347
ER -