In the Name of the United Nations

The UN's third Tunza International Youth Ecological Conference opened Sunday Aug. 26 in the Bayer Corporation's Communication Center in Leverkusen. The conference sponsors are the German chemical corporation and UNEP. The company announced that Werner Wenning, Bayer's CEO and Achim Steiner, UNEP's Executive Director would officially open the conference on Monday, Aug. 27. The German Minister of the Environment, Sigmar Gabriel, was scheduled to present the introductory speech. Under the motto 'Technology in Service of the Environment' more than 150 youth and young adults, arriving from Europe, North and South America, Africa and Asia, have come to confer for five days in Leverkusen.

Insufficient

The current conference is but the latest climax to Bayer's intensive cooperation with UNEP, which began back in the 1990s. The company is still heavily criticized for the high rate of pollution its factories are causing. Bayer still channels many pollutants into the Rhein River, its carbon dioxide emissions remain high (7.5 million tons/yr.) and the construction of a coal-burning power station, will add another 4.4 million tons/yr. to the atmosphere. "From the environmental point of view, Bayer's ecological measures are still insufficient" concludes Philipp Mimkes, a member of the presidium of the Coalition Against BAYER-Dangers. In several Asian countries, a region targeted for company expansion [1] the company even fields pesticides that are classed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "extremely hazardous," and with dire consequences. Last year in the Philippines, 79 children had to be hospitalized after their school happened to be within the effective radius of a poisonous cloud from a Bayer pesticide plant.[2]

Global Standardization

The Bayer Corporation's successful advertisement of its environmental activities exceed a mere cultivation of image. According to Philipp Mimkes, "environmental protection is mainly taken seriously, when it brings a rise in profits or advantageous competitive positions". For example, the corporation's subsidiaries in China, a country suffering under enormous environmental problems, are emitting less pollution than its Chinese competitors. Bayer, for instance, produces synthetics necessary for the production of energy-saving insulation materials. Klaus Toepfer, Germany's Minister of the Environment from 1987 to 1994 and since, intimately acquainted with the desires of Germany's industries, described the export chances of ecological technologies in a Bayer publication a few years ago: the West could "make a major contribution to establishing manufacturing processes in the third world capable of protecting the environment and making economical use of resources" through the profitable "export of appropriate technology from industrialized countries".[3] "By globalizing technological standards we will achieve global uniform standards for environmental protection," Toepfer wrote about the industrial rationalization patterned after Western norms of production and profit. As UNEP Executive Director, Toepfer has been pursuing this global standardization since 1998.

Position of Responsibility

While Toepfer was restructuring the, long considered insignificant, UN-Agency, Bayer quickly joined his efforts at standardization. One of Bayer's most important projects to attain influence is the "Young Environmental Envoy Program", launched in cooperation with UNEP in 1998 and aimed at future executives in poverty stricken countries. In this program, selected students are invited, every year for a weeklong "study tour" to Bayer's Leverkusen headquarters [4] where they "learn first-hand about the principles and methods of modern industrial environmental protection." Concerning the aim of the program Bayer writes: "After returning to their home countries, the young people integrate the experience and information, they have gained in Germany, into their own environmental protection networks. Numerous former Young Environmental Envoys now hold positions of responsibility in connection with environmental protection in their homelands - be it in the media, with authorities or in non-governmental organizations - and are thus able to provide important impulses for sustainable development at the national level" - in the name of the UN and against the background of German strategic interests.

Integrity

Bayer was the first private company in the world that signed a framework agreement on its cooperation with UNEP in 2004. At present Bayer and UNEP "jointly organize a dozen environmental projects for young people around the world. In addition, BAYER supports project work through donations worth one million Euros every year," the company headquarters informs.[5] The centerpiece of this cooperation is an International Youth Conference on environmental protection every two years, which this year is being held for the first time at Bayer's Leverkusen headquarters. Bayer's critics have launched a strong protest against the United Nations' close cooperation with the profit oriented company. In an open letter of the Coalition Against BAYER-Dangers one reads that this cooperation is threatening "the integrity" of the United Nations Environment Program.[6]

With Friendly Support

The open letter is addressed to Achim Steiner acting UNEP Executive Director and successor of Klaus Toepfer.[7] It has been noticed worldwide last year, that he is the second German to attain this position. Usually, the United Nations seeks to avoid privileging any particular state. Steiner, who officially opened the Youth Conference in Leverkusen on August, 27, had first been active in the German development policy. As General Director of the World Conservation Union (IUCN), one of the most influential organizations involved in the nature conservation, he focused on the protection of biological diversity, a field of great interest to German companies, such as Bayer CropScience. They are hoping to broaden their knowledge of the gene reserves to improve their agro-industrial seeds and biotechnology and enhance their competitive standing.[8] With the benefit of hindsight, a lecture program, organized by the University of Mainz in July 2004 turned out to be groundbreaking in several respects. Klaus Toepfer and Achim Steiner spoke on "Biodiversity". According to the subtitle of their lectures, they focused on the "International Nature Conservation Policy between the poles of globalization and Shareholder Value." As can be seen form the letter of invitation, the program was organized with "the friendly support of Bayer CropScience AG."

[1] see also Deadly Poison
[2] see also Mit Abstand Marktführer
[3] Partnerschaftlich die Zukunft gestalten; Bayer research 16, www.research.bayer.de/Download_Center.aspx
[4] Junge Umweltbotschafter; www.bayer.de/de/Jugend-Umweltprogramm.aspx. Die Entsendestaaten messen dem Programm große Bedeutung bei, schreibt Bayer: "In Thailand nimmt ein Mitglied des Königshauses im Rahmen einer Audienz die Ernennung der Umweltbotschafter vor. Und auf den Philippinen werden die 'Bayer Envoys' vor ihrer Abreise nach Deutschland von der Staatspräsidentin empfangen."
[5] Bayer und UNEP: Partner für Jugend und Umwelt; www.bayer.de/de/Jugend-Umweltprogramm.aspx
[6] Stop Partnering with Bayer; www.cbgnetwork.org/2089.html
[7] see also Deutschen-Quote
[8] see also Die Schatzinsel and Mordsgeschäfte (II)