Planet under Pressure

tecting the harvest. In another pioneering
project, we are collaborating with
partners to develop plants that produce
the nitrogen they need themselves and
no longer have to be fertilized artificially.
Empowering smallholders
Farmers harvesting rice in India:
Bayer wants to provide increased
support for smallholder farmers, who
are the mainstay of food production
in many developing and emerging
countries.
In low- and middle-income countries
(LMICs), smallholder farmers are essential
for local food supplies, but they often
suffer from hunger, malnutrition, and
poverty themselves. By 2030, we aim to
support 100 million smallholder farmers
by improving access to agronomic
knowledge, products, and services. In
doing so, we will increase their yields
and incomes as well as contribute to
fighting poverty in rural areas.
Women are central to boosting
socio-economic development
Experts consider the lack of women’s
empowerment as one of the main factors
hindering successful socio-economic
development in LMICs. Today, more than
200 million women in developing countries
have an unmet need for modern
contraception, an essential component
of family planning. This is not only central
to women’s health, but also gives
them greater autonomy over their lives,
which can have a positive ripple effect on
families and communities. As the leading
women’s healthcare company, our
goal is to provide 100 million women in
LMICs with access to family planning by
2030 by contributing to multistakeholder
programs and ensuring the supply of
affordable, modern contraceptives. In
this way, we want to improve women’s
health, rights, and economic status – a
large step toward gender equality.
Access to everyday healthcare
More than half of the world’s population
today has no access to adequate
self-care products and services, and this
figure could potentially rise to five billion
people by 2030. Besides helping current
patients avoid illness, expanding access
to everyday healthcare also improves the
health of younger generations, reduces
costs, and offers the chance of a better
future. As a leading Consumer Health
company, we will expand access to everyday
healthcare for 100 million people in
underserved communities around the
world by 2030. Our proven consumer
brands will drive this ambition.
Carbon-neutral operations and
reduction of GHG emissions along
our value chains
Bayer has set out to become carbon
neutral by 2030 and reduce emissions,
including in our value chain. With that
in mind, we have joined Science Based
Targets, an initiative that promotes increased
energy efficiency and a switch
to green energy.
Agriculture currently accounts for about
a quarter of the world’s GHG emissions.
As such, the biggest contribution to
reducing greenhouse gases can be made
by our customers. We will help farmers
cut GHG emissions from their fields
by 30 percent per kilogram of yield by
2030 through the use of eco-friendly
products and technologies. This pledge
is unprecedented in the industry, as is
our endeavor to also reduce the environmental
impact resulting from the
use of our crop-protection products by
30 percent.
A special challenge lies in finding effective
ways to offset unavoidable emissions.
With our digital innovations, which enable
us to determine exactly what is happening
on and in the field, right down to
the smallest furrow, we want to lay the
groundwork for a new line of business for
farmers across the globe. We furthermore
intend to establish a private market for
sequestering CO 2
in the ground. Combining
cultivation methods that retain a lot of
CO 2
in plants and soil will enable farmers
in food production to benefit from an
additional source of income.
Economic success and sustainability
go hand in hand
We consider attaining these sustainability
targets to be just as important
as meeting financial goals. That is why
they are anchored in the remuneration
models for the Board of Management and
other managerial staff, as well as in our
company’s decision-making processes. In
accordance with our purpose of “Science
for a better life,” we want to help people
thrive on a healthy planet. In our eyes,
economic success and sustainability go
hand in hand.
Global Goals Yearbook 2020 85