With its slogan ‘health for all’ and ‘hunger for none’ COP30 will be “an important milestone for Bayer, especially as it is taking place in Brazil, the company’s second-largest market worldwide”, announced the Leverkusen-based multinational. The company’s Global PR manager, Max Müller, said: “With a fantastic team, we will be present, stimulate discussions, present ideas and show how innovation and technology have changed the way food security can be achieved in a sustainable manner.”

Bayer is desperately in need of some good PR, after buying Monsanto (‘the most hated company in the world’) in 2018 for 53 billion euro. This led to an avalanche of litigation on cancer and glyphosate in the US, costing the company at least another 10 billion euro. COP30 thus offers an opportunity to change the narrative about its operations.
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In its first ‘Political Advocacy Transparency Report’, published in December 2023, Bayer declared spending €49 million worldwide on lobbying (including the pharmaceutical side of its operations), as well as €26 million on trade association fees. The report shows Bayer spent a staggering €75 million on lobbying in 2022, with at least €13.5 million spent in Europe.

Spending a bit less last year (relatively speaking!) does not mean Bayer was not active at EU level: out of 82 high level meetings with the European Commission in total over the past decade, no less than 26 took place this year. Bayer is also represented in various expert groups, and special groups in the European Parliament. Last year ir also received €363,000 in EU grants for research purposes. And as part of its “series of communication activities” the company is “sponsoring content and events organised by Politico under its “Drive sustainable progress” campaign.

Bayer’s self reported Brazilian lobby budget amounted to $1.5 million in 2023. The money seems well spent: a 2024 study by investigative journalist consortium ‘O Joio e o Trigo’ and ‘Fiquem Sabendo’ revealed that the pesticide industry in Brazil secured a whopping 752 lobby meetings with government officials between October 2022 and July 2024. Bayer is the front-runner in this lobby record – according to the research Bayer lobbyists met with government officials 52 times between August 2022 and October 2024.

https://corporateeurope.org/en/2025/11/bayer-brazil-big-polluter-big-lobby-spender