By Betsey Piette
November 25, 2025

Before a fire broke out on Nov. 20 at the United Nations Conference of Parties Climate Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, corporate media was giving scant coverage to this annual global gathering. Held Nov. 10 to Nov. 21, COP30 was supposed to address the increasingly dire crisis of the climate catastrophe.

Few bourgeois pundits even mentioned that the fire broke out during a crucial final stage of climate negotiations. This was after delegates from over 80 countries petitioned the conference to develop a roadmap for transitioning away from fossil fuels that would be included in the COP30 outcome document, due to be completed Nov. 21.

It was no surprise that COP30 ended with the same broad promise to increase funds for developing nations but no concrete action plan to phase out fossil fuels. Once again the oil and gas producers came out the winners.

Unfortunately, the host country Brazil, under heavy pressure from the fossil fuel industry, did not support the transitional plan. Despite having a progressive president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil has been expanding exploration and production of fossil fuels.

And because of the corporate interests dominating COP30, as they increasingly have in previous gatherings, it was unlikely any significant progress towards addressing the climate catastrophe would be made.

Agribusiness interests dominate

As discussed in a previous article, one of the largest delegations to COP30 included representatives from the fossil fuel industry. (https://wp.me/p4Yme1-70c)

But these delegates were not the only corporate interests trying to influence the outcome of the conference.

Set up by the state-owned Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation Embrapa, the Agrizone was described as a large “showcase of technologies, science and international cooperation focused on sustainable agriculture and the fight against hunger in a context of climate change.” (peoplesdispatch.org/2025/11/12) In practice Agrizone was a stage for agribusiness to promote its image and increase profitability at the expense of Indigenous peoples and peasant farming communities.

Three financiers of Agrizone, a space that claimed to “combat hunger and the environmental crisis,” were the pesticide giant Bayer, food processor Nestlé and pesticide producer Office Chérifien des Phosphates (OCP), companies known for directly contributing to the deepening environmental crisis. (DeSmog.com, Nov. 18)

Swiss-based Nestlé has been under scrutiny for adding unnecessary sugar to its products, including baby cereals, marketed in Africa and Latin America. (foodbusinessmea.com, Nov. 18) Over 50% of its sales are of products with very low nutritional value. (brasildefato.com.br/June 13, 2024)

Moroccan state-owned company OCP holds 70% of global phosphorus reserves that are used mainly in producing pesticides. Most of it comes from a mine in Western Sahara, a country under Moroccan colonial occupation. Bayer, which produces Roundup, paid over $2 billion in compensation to an individual in the U.S. proven to have contracted cancer from the pesticide. While no longer sold in the U.S., Roundup is widely used in Brazil, where the company currently faces 170,000 similar lawsuits. (mst.org.br, Aug. 5, 2024)

Many protests by Indigenous farmers at COP30 targeted these globalized agriculture businesses. The use of Roundup and other chemicals, the introduction of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and the poisoning of the land and water with chemicals that all contribute to global warming, while boosting agribusiness profits. Meanwhile, Indigenous and peasant communities face expulsion from their lands. This has been a long-standing struggle, not just in Brazil and Latin America, but around the world, particularly in Africa.

Elephants in the COP30 room – U.S. military and Gaza

Beginning with the Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, and continued under the 2015 Paris Agreement, U.S. military greenhouse gas emissions were excluded from global warming reduction commitments and treated as voluntary reporting. Yet it has been long established that the military-industrial complex is a leading contributor to environmental and climate crises.

Wars, U.S. imperialism’s most profitable business, impact the environment and climate through deforestation, pollution, the destruction of ecosystems and greenhouse gas emissions, extracting a long-term global toll. With 742 military bases located across 82 countries and territories and 171,736 active personnel deployed in 177 countries, plus 1.2 million troops stationed at home, the U.S. military consumes substantial amounts of energy, while emitting massive amounts of greenhouse gasses.

The massive U.S. military support for Israel’s total devastation of Gaza is just the latest example of Pentagon pollution. This genocide included over 100,000 tons of bombs dropped, a carbon footprint greater than the annual emissions of many countries; the widespread contamination of soil and water due to depleted uranium, white phosphorus and heavy metals; and the destruction of 80% of Gaza’s cropland.

The U.S./Israeli military operations in Gaza elevated greenhouse gas emissions, including carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, methane and hazardous air pollutants from missile strikes, fossil fuel combustion and resulting fires.

The Conference of Parties has a long history of ignoring the needs and demands raised by people of color around the globe, especially in Africa and West Asia. To ignore the ecocide of Palestinian lands, air and water, not to mention the genocide of the Palestinian people, seriously calls into question the validity of the COP conferences and the legitimacy of the United Nations itself.