Agribusiness giants tried to thwart EU deforestation plan after Cop26 pledge

Firms sought to weaken draft EU law banning food imports linked to deforestation eight days after vowing to accelerate action

Five of the world's biggest agribusiness firms sought to weaken a draft EU law banning food imports linked to deforestation, eight days after pledging to accelerate their forest protection efforts at Cop26, documents seen by the Guardian show.

Forest protection hopes had been raised when the CEOs of 10 food companies with a combined revenue of nearly $500bn (373bn) vowed to accelerate sector-wide action" towards eliminating commodity-driven deforestation as the climate summit began on 2 November.