Integrating sufficiency in the trade and biodiversity agenda of the European Union Show others and affiliations
Number of Authors: 10 2025 (English) In: One Earth, ISSN 2590-3330, E-ISSN 2590-3322, Vol. 8, no 7, article id 101347Article, review/survey (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
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.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages 2025. Vol. 8, no 7, article id 101347
Keywords [en]
bioeconomy, bioenergy, biomass, diets, eHANPP, embodied human appropriation of net primary production, international trade liberalization, land use, planetary boundary for biosphere integrity, scale effect, sufficiency, trade agreements
National Category
Environmental Economics and Management
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:su:diva-245708 DOI: 10.1016/j.oneear.2025.101347 ISI: 001548536700002 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105010684993 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:su-245708 DiVA, id: diva2:1990787
2025-08-212025-08-212025-10-07 Bibliographically approved