Cop30 Participants Include 300 Agriculture Lobbyists Responsible for Most Global Emissions: Report

Last Updated:November 18, 2025, 18:43 IST

Over 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists at Cop30 outnumber Canada’s delegation, drawing criticism over deforestation and climate inaction in Brazil.

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. (AP)

Over 300 industrial agriculture lobbyists have participated at the current UN climate talks in Brazil’s Amazon, where the industry is the leading cause of deforestation.

According to a joint investigation by DeSmog and The Guardian, 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 Belem.

While one in four of the big agriculture lobbyists participating at Cop30 are representing an official country delegations, few of among them have privileged access to the UN negotiations on policies related to curtailing global climate catastrophe.

According to scientists, radical changes to production and consumption in agriculture sector, which is responsible for a quarter to a third of global emissions, is necessary to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement.

“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.

These revelations come amid frustration at the access given to corporations that makes profit from maintaining global dependence on fossil fuels and/or the destruction of forests and other ecosystems.

According to The Guardian, 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.

As per a study in 2020, even if fossil fuels are eliminated business in the food sector will put the goal of limiting global heating to 1.5C above preindustrial levels.

The Guardian cited a study by Friends of the Earth US which stated that 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.

“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.

“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," he added.

News world Cop30 Participants Include 300 Agriculture Lobbyists Responsible for Most Global Emissions: Report

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