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https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/nov/18/big-agriculture-lobbyists-cop30-climate-summit>
"More than 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists have participated at this
year’s UN climate talks taking place in the Brazilian Amazon, where the
industry is the leading cause of deforestation, a new investigation has found.
The number of lobbyists representing the interests of industrial cattle
farming, commodity grains and pesticides is up 14% on last year’s summit in
Baku – and larger than the delegation of the world’s 10th largest economy,
Canada, which brought 220 delegates to Cop30 in Belém, according to the joint
investigation by
DeSmog and the
Guardian.
One in four of the big agriculture lobbyists (77) are participating at Cop30 as
part of an official country delegation, with a small subset (six) with
privileged access to the UN negotiations where countries are meant to hash out
ambitious policies to curtail global climate catastrophe.
Agriculture is responsible for a quarter to a third of global emissions and
scientists say it will be impossible to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris
agreement without radical changes to the way we produce and consume food.
Cattle ranching is the biggest driver of deforestation in the Amazon, followed
by the industrial production of soy, which is mostly used for animal feed.
Scientists have warned that as much as half of the Amazon rainforest could hit
a tipping point by 2050 as a result of water stress, land clearance and climate
disruption.
“More than 300 agribusiness lobbyists occupy the space at Cop30 that should
belong to the forest peoples. While they talk about energy transition, they
release oil into the Amazon’s basin and privatize rivers like the Tapajós for
soy. For us, this is not development, it is violence,” said Vandria Borari of
the Borari Kuximawara Indigenous Association of the Alter do Chão territory.
The revelations come amid growing frustration at the unfettered access given to
corporations that profit from maintaining global dependence on fossil fuels
and/or the destruction of forests and other ecosystems vital for mitigating
climate catastrophe.
The industrialised food sector has celebrated the lack of action at recent
climate summits, which failed to recommend binding targets for reductions in
emissions, fossil fuel use or meat consumption. A 2020 study found that even if
fossil fuels were immediately eliminated, business as usual in the food sector
probably puts the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial
levels – and even the 2C goal – out of reach."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
