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.
Meat and dairy sent the largest number, accounting for 72 of the total 302 delegates. This is almost double the number negotiating on behalf of Jamaica, the Caribbean island nation left devastated by Hurricane Melissa last month – a superstorm scientists say was made more intense by human-made global heating. India, a country of 1.45 billion people facing major climate challenges, sent a delegation of 87 negotiators.
According to a recent analysis from Friends of the Earth US, the emissions of the 45 largest meat and dairy companies are equivalent to those of Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest oil producer. JBS, the world’s largest meat company which alone accounts for a quarter (24%) of the emissions, has eight lobbyists at Cop30 including its CEO, Gilberto Tomazoni.
Agrochemicals – pesticides and synthetic fertilisers – account for 60 delegates, and biofuels have 38 representatives – a 138% jump since last year. Pesticides giant Bayer sent 19 lobbyists, the highest number, while Nestlé has nine.
Most synthetic fertilisers are derived from fossil fuels and emit nitrous oxide – a greenhouse gas 300 times more powerful than CO2, of which agriculture is the largest driver.
“These findings are proof that industrial agriculture has been allowed to co-opt the climate convention. Cop will never deliver real climate action as long as industry lobbyists are allowed to influence governments and negotiators,” said Lidy Nacpil of the Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development.
Food is not a focus of this year’s negotiations, but the sector stands to benefit from multiple key topics on the table including decisions over biofuels – many of which are produced from agricultural commodities such as corn and soy driving deforestation.
Brazil is pushing for a quadrupling of biofuel use, which is often marketed as a green energy – but a recent study found they can generate 16% more emissions than fossil fuels due to the land use impacts of growing monocrops.
Also key is climate finance, which the world’s largest agricultural polluters, already major recipients of public subsidies – are positioning themselves to receive large shares of.
“What’s happening in Belém is not a climate conference but a hostage negotiation over the future of the planet where those holding the detonators – the soy barons, the beef cartels, the pesticide peddlers – are seated at the table as honest brokers,” said Raj Patel, author of Stuffed and Starved: The Hidden Battle for the World Food System.
“These food lobbyists are purchasing access and legitimacy through politicians willing to accept their checks while the planet burns, added Patel, research professor in the Lyndon B Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas, Austin.
The analysis is based on the UNFCCC’s provisional list of 56,000 Cop30 delegates, and includes representatives of the largest corporations of meat and dairy, pesticides and fertiliser, food processors, commodity and seed traders, grocery retail and biofuels. The numbers also include global and regional trade groups, and national farmer unions and institutes with corporate affiliations and/or a history of lobbying aligned with industry demands.
The Brazilian National Confederation of Agriculture and Livestock (CNA), the agribusiness sector’s main lobbying arm in Congress, has supported several controversial anti-environmental laws including a bill that restricts the demarcation of and access to land for Indigenous populations, and attempted to overturn the Amazon soy moratorium, a landmark voluntary agreement to block the sale of soya linked to deforestation.
The Meat Institute – which represents 350 meat packing and processing companies that produce 95% of the meat and poultry in the US – has two delegates. The trade group has lobbied hard against regulations including opposing efforts to force US companies to disclose the full extent of their emissions, and against changes to dietary guidelines around reducing red meat consumption.
In the US, agribusiness corporations and trade groups spent well over half a billion dollars lobbying Congress between 2019 and 2023 for favourable legislation, so it’s unsurprising to see big ag at Cop30, according to Karen Perry Stillerman, deputy director of the food and environment program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“Advocates are already calling for the fossil fuel industry and its disinformation to be banned from future climate talks, and the influence of big ag is similarly toxic … we won’t have sustainable, fair, healthy, or climate-resilient food systems anywhere in the world as long as giant agribusiness and food corporations are making the rules.”
The industrial agricultural participation is up 71% compared to Cop27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, but down from the record high at Cop28 in Dubai, which was the largest ever UN summit with 86,000 delegates, compared with 56,000 registered in Brazil.
A spokesperson for Bayer said: “We have been transparent on our Cop engagements … we firmly support actions to avert the climate crisis. The process needs all hands on deck.”
A spokesperson at JBS said in a statement: “JBS, as a food company, is concentrated on increasing farm productivity, enhancing food system efficiency, and reducing food loss and waste.”
Nestlé, CNA and the Meat Institute did not respond to requests for comment. The Brazilian Cop30 presidency and UNFCCC also did not respond to requests for comment.
