Indigenous activists have held a series of protests at this week’s COP30 summit in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon against the inaction of governments on key climate issues.
Campaigners confronted ‘Big Agriculture lobbyists’ in one protest at the summit’s AgriZone on Monday, near the main COP venue, which is sponsored by the likes of Nestlé and Bayer.
The AgriZone marked “the latest development in the growing trend of COP – the world’s only multilateral decision-making forum on climate change – being co-opted by big polluters and business interests”, claimed a coalition of environmental NGOs, under the banner of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.
Despite the COP Presidency including land restoration and sustainable agriculture in its Action Agenda, the Brazilian government had “made the unprecedented move to capitulate to industrial agriculture, which is a main driver of deforestation in the Amazon and produces a third of global greenhouse gas emissions”, the coalition said.
Other food giants such as JBS have also come under fire, given what NGOs claim is their disproportionate influence on the summit.
It comes as Brazil was accused of “pervasive greenwashing” and of using COP30 to further the cause of its powerful livestock sector in a damning report published by campaign group Changing Markets Foundation earlier this month.
A further protest was held on Thursday, calling for “Food for People, Not for Profit”.
Big agribusiness was “driving deforestation, animal cruelty, and emissions, yet they have a VIP seat at the COP30 table”, said World Animal Protection’s head of civil society and engagement Elodie Guillon.
“We’re here today because climate leadership means standing with communities, animals and the environment, not with the corporations causing their suffering,” she added. “Companies like JBS are not serious about a humane, sustainable, and equitable future. The future is in fair farms, not factory farms.”
Read more: Brazil denounced for ‘greenwashing’ as meat sector set for centre stage at COP30
A key area of concern at this year’s summit, yet to be resolved at the time of writing, is inaction on methane emissions by the world’s largest polluters.
The Changing Markets report highlighted how the agribusiness lobby was “shielded from meaningful regulation through systematic greenwashing, effective lobbying and political capture by vested interests”.
Its influence was so entrenched that despite Brazil being a signatory to the Global Methane Pledge, agricultural methane received no mention in the country’s nationally determined contribution – despite methane accounting for 74% of Brazil’s total emissions.
This was echoed by NGO Mighty Earth last week, which said Brazil, along with the EU, US, China and India had “not adopted specific reduction targets, developed large scale mitigation strategies, or introduced strong binding regulation to curb industrial livestock emissions”.
These five nations emitted an estimated 1.8 billion tons of CO2 equivalent of agricultural methane in 2022, accounting for 45% of global agricultural methane emissions, Mighty Earth said.
The EU and the US jointly took the initiative for the Global Methane Pledge (GMP) in 2021, with 160 countries signing up to cut methane emissions by 30% by 2030. “Halfway through this crucial decade of action and with five years to achieve the GMP target, global methane emissions are still rising, driven by industrial livestock farming,” it added.
“Without decisive action to address methane emissions from industrial meat and dairy production, the Global Methane Pledge will miss its 30% by 2030 target,” the NGO warned.
“Governments meeting at COP30 cannot bow to corporate greed or miss this opportunity in the Brazilian Amazon to go beyond talking about action for people, climate and nature and commit to binding and urgent agreements to stop deforestation and tackle rising emissions,” said Glenn Hurowitz, CEO of Mighty Earth.
The summit concludes at the end of next week.
No comments yet