EUROPE: Green groups push for ban on climate-damaging pesticide

[pfpcnews]

Green groups push for ban on climate-damaging pesticide

ENDS Europe - May 27, 2026

By Alexandra Warren

Three environmental groups from Germany are urging the European Commission not to renew the approval of sulfuryl fluoride as a pesticide ingredient, due to its impact on the climate.

In a statement, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH), the Umweltinstitut München (UIM) and Protect the Planet highlighted their concerns with the substance, saying that it is 7,500 times more harmful to the climate than CO2 when considered over a 20 year period. The substance is used to fumigate grain and seed storage facilities and treat timber.

Sulfuryl fluoride’s approval, granted under the Plant Protection Products Regulation in 2010, is set to expire at the end of January 2027, and as part of the risk assessment required for the substance’s approval renewal, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carried out a public consultation.

In their joint response, DUH and IUM said that they advocate to protect human health and the environment from the negative effects of pesticides, including for the “fastest possible phase-out practices in plant protection that drive climate change”.

“We note that any contribution to global warming increases the risk for the loss of habitats and therefore the mass extinction of animal species as well as serious negative impacts on humans e.g. on health and food supply,” the response reads. “The usage of pesticides containing sulfuryl fluoride is of particular concern, due to the extremely high global warming potential of this substance.”

The groups further criticised the choice of representative use case in the application, claiming that by excluding the fumigation of logs in sea containers circumvents known efficacy problems of the substance and downplays the contribution to climate change.

Jürgen Resch, federal managing director at DUH, said that reapproving the substance would be a “catastrophe for climate protection”. “Anyone who takes climate protection seriously must immediately ban sulfuryl fluoride,” he added.

In September 2024, DUH brought a legal case against the Commission over its decision to extend the approvals of sulfuryl fluoride and PFAS pesticide flufenacet. The case has not yet been ruled on, but flufenacet was banned in May last year.

SOURCE:
https://www.endseurope.com/article/1959 ... -pesticide