WEBVTT

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Matthias, thank you for making
time. It's exciting to see you.

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I wanted to talk to you. Our teams have
been working together very closely.

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Bayer has been very active in mobilizing,
convening, thought leadership,

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getting folks together to respond to
the impact on the food system from the

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current Ukraine crisis.

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I wanted to talk to you a little bit
about what you all are doing and what you

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see in the state of the crisis now. Are
you optimistic? What are your thoughts?

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I'm not optimistic because people
are still dying in the Ukraine.

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It's a senseless war. It's
a second invasion by Russia,

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in just a few years in that country,

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that's causing a problem and
we all can't be optimistic with

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830 million people living
in food insecurity in

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2022 and a high likelihood
that next year it will be many

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more. What I'm optimistic about is
that we can find a way out of this.

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I want to ask you, we are in this
unique moment. We've had Covid,

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climate related weather
events, a conflict.

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It's really had an impact
on the food system.

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We're in one of the worst
food crises of all time,

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and it's created this undercurrent
of a bit of debate here.

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Can we actually address a food
system crisis and do a food system

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transformation, which we need for
the long term at the same time?

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I'd love to get your thoughts on it.

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For me, that's really easy to answer.
If we don't address the crisis,

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we won't get a transformation.

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Agriculture is this very special sector
that contributes to global warming,

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that accelerates climate change.

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Roughly a quarter of all
GHG emissions stem from

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agriculture and boy, is agriculture
suffering from climate change.

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So for us, there is no choice.

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We need to do everything we can on
mitigation and we have to double down on

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adaptation.

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What is Bayer doing in this space?

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We are directing a two and a
half billion dollar R&D budget.

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That's more than twice the next
competitor and three times the whole CGIAR

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budget. In the direction of
addressing the climate crisis,

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we are focusing on 'three Rs.' We
want to reduce carbon emissions,

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we want to remove atmospheric carbon
by enabling farmers to make money with

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that. And we want to drive resilience.

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We want to bring innovation to a point
that allows farmers to grow crops

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that can withstand the climate
crisis as much as possible.

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What you just said is really interesting.
We're talking about a financing gap.

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The scale of what you are able to
do as one company is impressive.

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So it really highlights the importance
of the private sector coming together and

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really playing a role in food systems
transformation. I want to ask you,

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there's actually a lot of
private sector here in this COP.

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It's the first time at a
COP we're having a food day.

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What is your challenge to your peers,
to the rest of the private sector?

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My challenge is demonstrate that
you deliver against net zero.

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Don't talk about it. Demonstrate
that you deliver against it.

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We talk too much about targets and

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announcements. Actually take
carbon out of your value chain.

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In order for us to reach net zero,
we need to grow carbon neutral.

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We need to cut our emissions
in half in 10 years and then

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again for the next two decades.

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And we need to incredibly
offset the remaining emissions.

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That's not complicated, it's just hard.

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So 'demonstrate that you are doers' is
the challenge that I present to companies

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that talk about it, but
don't seem to act about it.

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It's a wonderful call to action. This is
meant to be a COP about implementation.

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It's a perfect place to put
that challenge out there.

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Thank you so much for your time.
It was great chatting with you.