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Before we start going through the items on the agenda, I'd like you to rise from your seats.
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We will remember all of the employees and retirees who passed away since the last assembly. Thank you.
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As you can see, all of the members of the Supervisory Board and of the Board of Executive Directors are present. Now, I have a few comments on the Supervisory Board and Board of Executive Directors. The following changes will occur. First of all, on the Supervisory Board. With the end of today's annual meeting, Mr. Ralf Bastian will resign from his mandate. He has been a member of the Supervisory Board since 2013 as an employee representative. Mr. Bastian, since 2008, has been a member of the Committee of Auditors. Since 2017, he has been a member of the Strategic Committee.
I'd like to thank Mr. Bastian for his many years of service, his 15 years of service, and his active contribution to the supervisory board of our company. Ms. Tatjana Diether will assume the seat of Mr. Bastian. She was elected in 2013 as substitute member. The number of female members of the supervisory board will increase from to four of 12 members. Both the shareholder side as well as the employee side is fulfilling the legal female quota. Also, with the end of today's annual meeting, Mr. Francesco Grioli will resign of his mandate. I should like to thank Mr. Grioli for his many years, his four years of service on the supervisory board. Mr. Roland Strasser will assume the seat of Mr. Grioli as an elected substitute member.
I'd like to ask Mr. Grioli and Mr. Strasser to rise from their seats. Ms. Diether and Mr. Strasser will now be visible. Please rise from your seats, so everybody can see that you will now be new members of the Supervisory Board. Thank you. Now on to the Board of Executive Directors. With the end of today's annual meeting, Dr. Bock will retire. He has been a member of the Board of Executive Directors since 2003, and since 2011, he has been the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors. At its meeting on the 21st of December 2017, the Supervisory Board nominated Dr. Martin Brudermüller as the successor to Dr. Bock as the Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors. Dr. Brudermüller is familiar to you.
He has been a member of the Board of BASF SE since 2006, and since 2011, he has been the Deputy Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors. Dr. Hans-Ulrich Engel, who's also familiar to you, will, with the end of this annual meeting, be nominated or designated as the new deputy chairman of the Board of Executives. With the resignation of Dr. Bock, the number of board members will be reduced from eight to seven. With this change, it will be made possible that Dr. Bock, at the end of the statutory two-year cooling-off period, will be elected into the Supervisory Board of BASF in 2020, and then he will be able to take over the Chair of the Supervisory Board.
Let me just make a few very personal comments. The long-term succession planning in the supervisory board and the board of executives looks back on an old tradition with Dr. Bock as the chairman of the board of the supervisory board, if you elect him in 2020. With this, we will continue that with the former board of executive chairman, who will have the best possible competence for a complex task on the Supervisory Board. I'd like to thank Dr. Bock for his willingness to accept this change that will provide a way into the future and will allow me to resign at the age of 74, and this will provide continuity in a very challenging situation.
I'd like to thank Dr. Bock, for his excellent work, his extraordinary commitment, and for his work on the board of directors for the wellbeing of our company.
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Okay, allow me to say this sentence too. Only very few people in this room can really assess how much self-discipline and stress this means. Because of this, I'd like to thank the Bock family, Ms. Dieter Bock, and most of all, the whole family is here, who supported us very much. Thank you very much for that support. Martin Brudermüller, the next Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Hans-Ulrich Engel as the Deputy Chairman. Now I'd like to wish you much luck and great success in the future.
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Ladies and gentlemen, now I'd like to move on to the organization and the procedure of this annual meeting.
This meeting has been published in the Federal Gazette in 2018 on the 23rd of March, and the annual meeting has been called in due form. All of the attendees of today's meeting have been sent, at their request, the invitation and the BASF annual report of 2017. Once again, I'll show you this so that you know what we are talking about. This is the annual report of BASF. Also, you received the invitation documents containing many interesting pieces of information. What is more, you have your personal annual meeting document that you received. In the past, you received a ballot. Now this replaces the ballot. The personal annual meeting document is necessary for requests to speak, for granting a power of attorney and for the voting.
The voting will take place electronically for the first time this year with tablet PCs. I will come back to this personal annual meeting document again and again in the course of this annual meeting, so that you know what I'm talking about. According to German corporation law, the annual meeting needs to be notarized, and the notary public is Ms. Seeler. From your point of view, she is sitting on the right-hand side of the hall, and this seat is a signposted. Your entry ticket contains the information for the legally prescribed list of participants and for the voting procedure, and both have been assigned to the number of your personal annual meeting document. Again, this is the personal annual meeting document that contains everything.
If you have several entries tickets, then for voting for each entry ticket, you need one personal annual meeting document. If you leave the assembly before the end of the meeting, please give our employees your personal annual meeting document so that we can then adjust the number of attendees. Now, every personal annual meeting document contains two power of attorney forms. For those ladies and gentlemen amongst the shareholders and shareholder representatives who will leave the annual meeting prior to its end and who will ask a proxy to vote for them during the resolutions, please read the explanations under item one and three of the annual meeting document. Everything is described there.
Now, we should like to ask all of the shareholders, the shareholder representatives, who want to take the floor during the annual meeting to announce their wish to speak at one of the two request to speak desks by presenting their personal annual meeting document and by using the form sheets provided there. Please announce your request to speak soon. Best of all right now, so that we know how many speakers will take the floor. I can tell you right now we have many requests to speak already.
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Now, the course of this annual meeting will not be recorded on tape, and we would like to ask you not to record anything either. Please don't take any recordings, neither audio nor video recordings. Please don't take any pictures.
This is simply due to the right of privacy to everybody. To avoid disturbances, we would like to ask you to switch off your mobile phones. If you need to make a phone call, please go outside of any of the areas that are part of the annual meeting areas. Please check now. Switch off your mobile phone now. Do it now. I'll do it now too, so that nobody calls me in the middle of the annual meeting. Now it's off. This year too, the list of participants will be made available electronically. There are two desks, two restrooms with screens close to the desk of the Nordbühne right in front of you. Now, in addition to the main hall, you will be able to follow the annual meeting in the Musensaal.
On level three, there are the rooms called Gustav Mahler, Alban Berg, and there are other adjoining rooms where the annual meeting will be broadcast. Also you can use different rooms in the adjoining Dorint Hotel. There's a pedestrian bridge that allows you to go there, the connection of the bridge is at level two of the Congress Center. Please make use of this offering. Also, you will, as always, have a chance to take part in the bus tour between 11:00 A.M. and 4:00 P.M. There will be continuous bus tours. We would like to ask the participants who want to take part and to have themselves represented by a proxy during the voting, or to present their personal annual meeting document at the exit so that we can change the list of attendees.
If the annual meeting ends before 4:00 P.M., there will be another bus tour at the end of the annual meeting. Much for the formal parts. Now, we'll hear from Dr. Bock. That's the report of the Board of Executive Directors.
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Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. I'd like to welcome all the shareholders on behalf of the Board of Executive Directors. We've had a good start to the year 2018, with a slight growth in sales volumes and earnings. The 2017 business year was also positive. We significantly exceeded our targets. We grew substantially and increased our profitability. This is good news. BASF is in a good position, but there is still much to be done. The global challenges are growing.
There is no reason to sit back and relax. When you look at the newspapers or at your tablet, you can see that ever since last year, things have not become easier, neither in Germany nor in Europe or in the rest of the world, for that matter. Who would have expected one year ago that the new government in Germany would only now be starting its work? The tensions in Europe would increase further and that a trade war is no longer terrible utopia. The economy seems entirely unfazed by all this. We are growing, and the job motor is humming along. In Germany, the discussion focuses on how to distribute the cake more fairly, but not how to secure future prosperity. That is also something I will address today, but first, let's take a look at BASF.
Why was 2017 such a successful year for us? How did our businesses develop, and what challenges will we have to face in the future? After that, I will speak about why we are optimistic about being able to successfully continue on our path. Finally, I will touch on the political framework conditions. What do we need in order to remain successful in the long run? Now, first of all, the overview. Our success in 2017 is due to several things. First of all, the market conditions were favorable. There was growth in all regions, especially in Europe. BASF, however, grew even faster than the market. Furthermore, we increased our prices, especially in chemicals, in part to compensate for higher raw material costs. Overall, our sales grew by 12% to almost EUR 65 billion. Secondly, we continued to rein in costs.
That is also one reason why operating earnings, that is EBIT before special items, grew even more sharply by around 1/3 to EUR 8.3 billion, which is a new record. Net income climbed even higher by 50% to EUR 6.1 billion. Thirdly, our investments in research and development, as well as in updating and expanding our production facilities paid off. This is particularly evident in Asia, where we achieved above average growth and where we doubled our earnings. Asia is therefore now the most profitable region for BASF. Who would have thought that a few years ago? Fourthly, and in my opinion, this is the most important item, the BASF team once again did a terrific job. Dear employees, for all your efforts, your great efforts, and your excellent achievements, the board and I would like to say thank you very much.
On behalf of everybody in this hall, thank you.
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Now, for our employees, this also means considerably higher bonuses and profit sharing because our return on assets, that is, the interest on the working capital, increased by nearly 3 percentage points to almost 11%. This is the global benchmark for our performance-related compensation. For you, our shareholders, we have once again proposed a higher dividend, an increase of EUR 0.10 to EUR 3.10 per share. We will thus pay out EUR 0.8 billion to you. Now, during the discussion later on, some of you will probably call for a higher dividend. It would be strange if it wouldn't be, if it wasn't the case. However, you know, some of you expected a goodbye gift, but you should know BASF better than that. We think our dividend proposal is appropriate.
It is in line with the rhythm of previous years and with our dividend policy. As you know, our policy says we aim to increase our dividend each year, and that being impossible because of untoward conditions, we will at least maintain it at the previous year's level. We've been able to do this for more than 15 years with only one exception, the crisis year of 2008, and this is unusual for a DAX company to have this steadiness in a constant increase of the dividend over 15 years. Our dividend policy stands for reliability. We want to keep our promises, and not least, you know, we have some other ideas of what we can do with the money in order to move the company forward and to develop it further and to create value for you.
As shareholders, you also benefit from the development of BASF's share price. How did BASF's valuation develop in 2017? At the end of the year, altogether, the share price was disappointing, only 3.9% higher than the closing price in 2016. During 2017, BASF share reached an all-time high of EUR 97.46.
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How do the analysts see us, the experts who follow BASF's share price? 60% of the analysts have a buy rating for BASF shares, 40% have a hold rating. The analyst average target price for BASF shares is EUR 101. We see this as confirmation of, as an affirmation of our work, but we also see there's still room for improvement. Most of you do not just invest for a year.
Many of you have been loyal shareholders for many years. How has the price of our BASF shares developed over the long term, over 10 years, for instance? I think the figures are impressive. Let's assume you invested EUR 1,000 in BASF shares in 2007. If you reinvested your dividends in BASF shares for these past 10 years, then your shareholding today would be worth 2,676 EUR, which is an honest yield of 10.3% per annum and this clearly outperforms the DAX 30 at 5%, the EURO STOXX 50 at 1%. Talking about chemicals, this is our benchmark throughout the world. You know, the MSCI World Chemicals at 7%. We also outperform that.
The primary indicator of the value we produce for you, our shareholders, is EBIT. That is the earnings after the cost of capital. In 2017, we more than doubled this figure to EUR 2.7 billion. At the same time, we clearly reduced our net debt and our balance sheet, that is financial debts minus liquidity. This means our balance sheet is very healthy. We thus have ideal conditions to shape our future from a position of strength. Does that mean everything is just fine? I think a look at our segments reveals the number of areas that need work, that will challenge us in the future, and I would like to shed some light on these areas. Business was especially good in the chemicals segment. That's the business with the big chemicals, big plants, big volumes, and costs are all important.
We more than doubled our earnings. Higher margins and volumes in the basic chemicals and intermediates businesses contributed to this increase in income. The first quarter was also satisfactory even though some of our major plants could not produce as planned. In the United States, severe winter weather along the Gulf Coast led to production disruptions. That was unforeseen. In China, the government temporarily turned off our gas supplies because private households had to be supplied with gas, and because of this, we were not able to run important plants.
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Now we will have to reduce the effects of that because we cannot influence the weather or politics. The performance product segment is the supplier to many different sectors, ranging from mining to the cosmetics industry, so this covers a wide range of special chemicals. In 2017, this segment did not meet our expectations.
We did grow. That's good, but we were dissatisfied with the decline in earnings in some important businesses. This was mainly due to a sharp increase in raw material costs and in part, this led to higher prices for chemicals and performance products. Now, these higher costs we were unable to pass on fully to our customers. Our priority this year is improving margins, which we were able to accomplish in the first three months of this year. At the same time, we are restructuring some of our businesses. In 2017, for example, we transferred our business with leather chemicals to the Stahl Group. In this joint venture, BASF has a minority shareholding. This year we want to bring our business with chemicals for water treatment at the paper industry into a merger with Solenis. Yesterday, we published this. Our partner is Solenis.
Solenis is a leading specialty chemicals company that supplies products for water treatment. BASF generates sales of around EUR 800 million in this business. Solenis generates sales of approximately EUR 1.6 billion. Together, we want to offer our customers comprehensive solutions in the field of water chemicals and paper chemicals. BASF will hold a share of 49% in the merged company. The third segment, Functional Materials and Solutions. This segment primarily supplies products for the automotive and construction industries. These businesses are growing quickly, especially in Asia. However, we are also feeling pressure from rising raw material costs and since the fourth quarter, the effects of the strong euro, which are painful, and of the weak U.S. dollar. Both of these factors had a negative impact on earnings in the first quarter and on sales.
This year we want to acquire Solvay's global polyamide business, Belgian company. We offer EUR 1.6 billion in this deal, which will expand our product portfolio. In this way, we want to fully utilize our innovative strength for the automotive industry. Our crop protection business performed well in 2017. In particular, the final sprint in the fourth quarter was impressive. 2018 got off to a subdued start owing to a long, cold winter, and things are only now picking up. 2018 will be especially exciting. We are planning to acquire a significant part of Bayer's crop protection and seed business. We made a quote for that. The purchase price will altogether be EUR 7.6 billion. This will be our biggest acquisition yet. Finally, oil and gas.
We sharply reduced cost and increased volumes, which enabled us to considerably grow earnings and cash flow. Of course, the higher prices for oil and gas helped us to do this. This segment's contribution to BASF's earnings rose again with this, but it is still far below the levels seen when oil, and this is not so long ago, you know, when oil cost more than $100 per U.S. barrel. Here, too, extensive changes are on the horizon. We want to bring our oil and gas business into a joint venture, which we aim to list on the stock exchange as a standalone company in the medium term. As you can see, we have a lot on our plate. In terms of operations, we need to keep the ship on course and pick up the pace even more.
In terms of strategy, we want to strengthen our portfolio with businesses that have above average growth and returns. I'm certain that the new board of executive directors, that's the one minus one, the new board of executive directors will make its own mark. Ladies and gentlemen, we are optimistic that we will be able to successfully continue on our path in the future at BASF. I will tell you why. Our We create chemistry strategy provides direction. Through research and development and in cooperation with our customers, we are finding new and better solutions to the pressing problems faced by a growing global population. We create chemistry for a sustainable future. This means we not only contribute to economic progress, but also to social and environmental progress and research.
At BASF, this will be part of our discussion today, I'm sure, BASF innovation and sustainability are inextricably linked. As a founding member of the UN Global Compact, we have been promoting sustainability for nearly 20 years. We not only support the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, we also worked on developing them. Let me give you examples. When we talk about sustainability and innovation in the chemical industry, you know, you may have heard of the circular economy. Now, that sounds like, recycling. You know, that's something our children and grandchildren now learn in school and preschool. The circular economy in chemistry means more than recycling. It is about answering questions such as, what can we do to conserve finite resources such as water, oil, and gas? What can we do to close loops in production? How can we efficiently recover residues?
How can we take this into account when we develop our products so that they are made in a way that they can be reused easily? We certainly don't have all of the answers, but some good examples we do have. For example, our Verbund. As many of you know, our plants are linked together in our Verbund. We use the byproducts of one factory as raw materials for another factory. This reduces waste, increases efficiency, and saves energy. Here, well, the topic of plastics will become ever more important. Well, they help you in everyday life, but they can be bad for the oceans. We developed a new bioplastic called ecovio. This is completely compostable, so it will decompose after a certain period of time. Actually, plastics are made that they continue for a long time.
This plastic is compostable, so if you drink coffee, you know of the discussion about the eco balance of coffee capsules. Together with a French customer, we have developed the first compostable coffee capsule for commercial coffee machines. The used coffee pod disintegrates in 12 weeks. Besides coffee capsules, our compostable plastic is also used, for example, in organic waste bags and agricultural applications. This is not just used for coffee, this product. The asparagus farmers amongst you know these foils that you use, they should be made of ecovio. To sum up, sustainability and innovation are inextricably linked. We see that as both an opportunity and as an obligation. Here, the Rosengarten, you could see many good examples of this.
Maybe later you can deal with e-mobility and 3D printing and look at the examples showcased below. This gives you a clear impression of the innovative strength of BASF. Innovation is at the heart of our competitive strength, and this is how we create value for our customers and ultimately for you, our shareholders. At the same time, however, we regularly scrutinize our businesses. Are we good enough in comparison to our competitors? How can we get even better? Can we create additional value by changing our portfolio? Now, this change of our portfolio is an ongoing task. Sometimes more, sometimes less, but we're doing it all the time. With these steps, both large and small, the face of BASF is changing sustainably. A comparison with our portfolio of 10 years ago illustrates this point very clearly.
At the moment, there is a lot happening again. By reshaping our crop protection, oil and gas activities, we want to further strengthen BASF. Number two, I would like to explain our strategy in both these businesses, especially because some people claim we are slaughtering BASF's alleged sacred cows. People say BASF is not in the seeds business, and they say oil and gas is a permanent and unchangeable part of our portfolio. What are we up to? Let's talk about crop protection first. BASF has a well-positioned crop protection business. It has above average growth and sustainable strong earnings, and we have an outstanding capacity for innovation. Some of you may not realize this, but for the past 15 years, BASF has been doing a lot of research in the area of seeds. First of all, in Germany.
The preconditions for this were taken away from us and now we do it almost exclusively in the United States. We contributed our developments in green biotechnology into a cooperative partnership with Monsanto. Monsanto produces and markets the seeds which we developed together, which are aimed at delivering better yields for farmers, especially under difficult weather conditions, you know, in droughts, for instance. These products have now been successfully launched on the market in the U.S. and they are successful, and BASF gains a major share of the revenues. What is also true is that BASF does not produce its own seeds. Again and again, we said that seeds are not relevant for us. What is important, however, is to be at the interface between crop protection and seed breeding. This is the case with the businesses offered by Bayer.
We will receive both crop protection products as well as the corresponding customized seeds. The aim is to make the crops, like soybeans, resistant to crop protection products. If fungi and weeds are to be fought, then the fungicide will not affect the soybeans adversely. This is known as fungicide and herbicide tolerance. Entering into the business of breeding, producing, and selling seeds only makes sense if we can achieve critical mass. Again, this is the case with the businesses being offered. BASF will become a significant competitor with attractive shares in growing markets. It is particularly important to us that the deal enables us to strengthen our research and development. These activities, the patents and the employees will join BASF.
We're talking about sales in the range of EUR 2 billion, earnings of EUR 550 million in, and additional annual research and development expenditures of EUR 300 million. In our current crop production business, this increases our research by 50%, and we're talking about more than 4,000 employees joining BASF. All this adds to our current activities excellently in the lab, in the market, and with our customers. This also enhances our offering in terms of digital agriculture, because agriculture today is highly professional and technological, and farmers use far more IT than most of you can imagine. We aim to continue our above-average growth in the future.
We want to expand by investing in research and development, and we will look for a fitting acquisition candidates which will further add to the combined Bayer and BASF business. Now we're waiting for the final authorization, and then we need to work on integration, which is a major task for our team, and we look forward to that. Much for crop protection and seeds. Now, with regard to the formation of our joint venture in the oil and gas business, we're still in negotiations with our future partner. We entered the oil and gas business in 1969 with the purchase of Wintershall. We originally wanted to secure BASF's supply of raw materials. Many of you know that, shortly afterwards, there was the first oil crisis and the auto-free Sunday.
Since then, the markets have changed dramatically. In all of these years, we have successfully grown and reshaped our business. Just think of our entry into gas trading and our really successful partnership with Gazprom. Or think of the investments in Norway and Argentina in recent years.
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In the past 10 years, we've increased our production of oil and gas by 4% annually, which is a lot even compared to the industry. Each year, the oil and gas segment made an important contribution to the success of the BASF Group, but with major fluctuations, to be honest. In 2012, EBIT before special items, now let me look back on this, in the oil and gas segment was nearly EUR 2 billion. This represented almost 30% of the BASF Group total. Now, the share of net income after taxes was 25%.
In 2017, the equivalent figures were just 10% and 12%. This is not only due to the decline in oil and gas prices and the sale of our natural gas trading business, it is also due to the fact that we continuously improved earnings in our chemicals business over the years. To put it plainly, BASF does not need an oil and gas business to be a successful chemical company. Nevertheless, we want to successfully further develop the oil and gas activities. We will achieve both these aims with the planned joint venture. Wintershall Dea in Hamburg complement each other brilliantly in terms of regions, expertise, and culture. Our objective is clear. We want to develop Wintershall Dea into one of the largest independent companies in the European oil and gas sector, if not the largest and the leading one.
In the medium term, we want to list the company on the stock exchange. To do so, we are also prepared to reduce our clear majority share over time. The mood of the employees at Wintershall Dea is a good indicator of whether such great ideas of the Board of Executive Directors really constitute a good idea. Of course, there are questions about what effects it will have on jobs. In general, however, the reaction was very positive. The merger is welcomed because it brings together what fits together. Well, so much for the explanations of the strategic development of BASF Group. Now I'd like to say something about the outlook for 2018 and our current business development. I alluded to some of these points already. I said that basically, we are in the first quarter, we have fulfilled our expectations.
We had a good start to the year. Our EBIT before special items rose by EUR 55 million to EUR 2.5 billion compared with the prior year quarter. Sounds like a lot, but the weak dollar really changed things. Almost EUR 300 million in negative currency effects with the same currency rates as last year would now be EUR 2.5 billion or EUR 2.8 billion. So there's no point in complaining about this. We want to change this, and this year we want to increase EBIT by up to 10%, and we want to slightly increase sales to up to 30%, which is challenging because 2017, of course, was a very good year for BASF, and I wish the new board of directors of executive directors much luck to achieve this.
What are we seeing right now? I think there's a certain demand consolidation at a high level. We see good growth, but the speed of growth is declining. Our capacity utilization of our plants is very high, and demand looks good, but the dynamism at the end of 2017 and 2016 is gone. We are experiencing strong headwinds on account of the weak U.S. dollar. This is more pronounced than just a few months ago. Furthermore, there's uncertainty on the political scene. Just think of Brexit. There's no solution in sight yet, and the trade conflicts. Nevertheless, we are optimistic about the future. It would be helpful, and we would be even more optimistic if politicians would allow us to rely on them.
Today, we cannot talk about agriculture, crop protection, and seeds, or oil and gas for that matter, without talking about politics too. This brings me to my almost final point. What political conditions do we need in politics in order to remain successful? There are many issues that affect BASF. I'd like to highlight three. First of all, our relationship to Russia, which is very important to BASF, and then the lack of willingness to use scientific findings as a basis for political decisions and regulation. Finally, the expectation of policymakers or of society at large that Germany will be largely decarbonized by 2050. This means life without carbon. These are important questions for our competitiveness. First of all, let's talk about Russia.
I told you before that for more than 25 years, we've had a very good cooperative partnership with Gazprom. Gazprom has always been a reliable supplier, which would like to export more gas to Europe. Europe needs more gas because we have largely exhausted our own fields in Germany and the Netherlands. Furthermore, we have to replace coal power plants with gas-fired ones in order to reduce the carbon intensity of our electricity production. Supplying gas via pipelines is safe and inexpensive. The import of liquefied gas, for example, from the U.S. could complement this. This means cooled, refrigerated, liquefied gas in tankers. But this is neither sufficient nor reliable, nor truly competitive. By the way, this past cold winter, we still remember it, we were only able to keep homes in Germany warm thanks to imports from Russia.
Anyone who tells you this would also be possible without Russia is endangering our energy security. Anyone who suggests that we can do it without Nord Stream 2 is only acting in their own interest, or at least not in Europe's best interest. Gazprom wants to invest more than $10 billion to lay a pipeline through the Baltic Sea to our front door, and we can then decide whether to buy the gas or not. Everyone can purchase it, but they will have to be prepared to negotiate. Let's talk about the lack of willingness from our point of view to engage in a fact-based discourse. Crop protection is a good example. It takes around 11 years today to develop a new product there in crop protection, and the average costs are more than EUR 200 million.
Getting approval requires strict testing according to globally recognized scientific criteria. Unfortunately, Europe and Germany, in particular, are increasingly taking on an outsider role. They're not a role model. Here, investments in innovations are not being rewarded with quick approval processes. It takes more than two years in Germany before product approvals from other European countries are recognized. This is six times longer than the law prescribes, and this is damaging to us because we cannot roll out the new products on the market in good time, and the farmers don't have the best possible solutions available. The rules of the game are constantly changing. Ministries are no longer following the recommendations of their own experts. Ideology is dominating science. A typical example of this is the discussion about the extension of the approval of glyphosate, and this is a rather unfortunate or good example for this.
By the way, BASF does not produce glyphosate, but this is simply a case in point of how politicians act. We need an open and unbiased discussion about the future of agriculture in Germany too. Our industry has a lot to contribute, here, more than others. Further improvements are necessary and possible, but only when we take advantage of all the findings and potential of modern science. In my opinion, this also includes green biotechnology. When you hear that the Green Party is thinking about how to deal with the topic, then we have reason to be a little less pessimistic. We hope that the new German government will quickly initiate and advance this dialogue on green biotechnology. Another political topic, the idea of decarbonization of society without carbon.
This cannot be our objective, because our body consists of 40% worth of carbon atoms, so we should make sure that this remains the case. Basically, you know, it's about bringing down CO2 emissions sustainably in order to reach the Paris Climate Agreement. We in chemistry talk about greenhouse gas neutrality for chemicals. For the chemical industry, this represents a great opportunity because our technologies are the key to reducing CO2 emissions. It is our developments in the first place that will make it possible to reduce the use of fossil resources, for example, in e-mobility. At the same time, however, we call for realism in this debate. It is illusory and economically totally indefensible that we are supposed to reduce the use of fossil resources by 90% by 2050.
That is only 32 years from now, and you may remember what the world was like 32 years ago. Oil and gas currently account for 90% of the raw materials used in the chemical industry. I'm certain that we will see further major progress in lowering CO2 emissions. Industry, and especially chemistry, are already playing a pioneering role if you compare this to traffic, for instance. Even in 2050, we will still be an industry based on oil and gas, even if the share of renewable resources will be slightly higher. This is not bad, because nobody treats these fossil resources more responsibly than the chemical industry. With its innovations, the chemical industry enables more and more people to live better and longer lives, and we turn oil and gas into intelligent molecules to achieve this.
Sustainability means, above all, finding the right balance between economic, social and environmental objectives, and we have to engage in this debate together. Unilateral efforts by a single nation, such as Germany's transition, may stroke our German ego, but they do little for the climate and they are fatal for our jobs. Here too, Europe and more international cooperation can help. As a global company, we know where in the world real problems need to be solved, and Germany is surely not at the top of the list. Ladies and gentlemen, this brings me to the end of the official part of my speech. As you know, this is my last annual meeting. Because of this, I'd like to share some thoughts at the end. I don't want to disappoint your expectations.
People believe I'm obstinate, an obstinate person from Eastern Westphalia, which is not totally wrong, I guess. You know, if you think of Swabians, you may think about what this means. This means, you know, I have attributes like sober, fact-based, which I think is okay, and it helps you to keep the company steady when you see things the way they are and if you try to make fact-based decisions. Cool, distanced. Well, this is due to my origin in Eastern Westphalia, but maybe not always, but sometimes it can be helpful. Not excitable, that really helps a lot. If you get excited whenever something goes wrong, you know you shouldn't do this job. This helps a lot. A person enamored of figures.
In the past, I used to be a board member for finances, and of course, because of this, I like figures. Everybody on the Board of Executive Directors thinks analytically, and they are able to both read and understand figures. There is not much of a difference between me and my colleagues. But on the serious side of things, I'm a merchant, and the chemists suffered from this. I'm not sure whether this is true. I hope it has become clear that innovation, research and development are really the core of our competitiveness in the future, and we keep spending more money on research and development all over the world. The researchers are doing well. Then there's the topic with the visions. Well, I think we have a clear strategy.
We create chemistry for a sustainable future. This is our strategy. When it comes to visions, Helmut Schmidt, a former Federal Chancellor, said everything that is necessary to know about visions. What people overlook usually, which I find remarkable, and this has become worse in recent years, BASF is run by a team. There are eight of us. All of us are very different. We are a very colorful group, and we complement each other's strengths and weaknesses and likes and dislikes, and we take decisions jointly, and I believe this is one of the strengths of BASF. Let me be sober and fact-based and without excitement. BASF, I think, is facing challenges, and the new board will take action in a decisive way and will further develop the future, and they will follow their own guidance and will not follow fads.
This board of executives is top-notch, and it's much more diverse than a few years ago. Martin Brudermüller has all the competencies he needs, and I wish you much success, and may fortune smile upon you.
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After 33 years, this is the end for me after this annual meeting. I like being with the BASF. It has been a lot of fun. It's not just hard work, but it's a privilege to run this company. I wanted to show you what we are planning, what drives us. It is my conviction that BASF is doing the right things, and most of the time BASF is doing a really good job. But what really differentiates this company, not just in terms of whether we grow and yield results, but it's the way we work.
The how is important, and it's characterized by openness, and we challenge each other. Yes, there are controversies, there is trust and respect, there is friendship, and there is a willingness to be successful together. This is the key to our success. Part of this is how we handle the succession on the board. Not everybody can do it that well, and BASF is doing a good job. I'd like to thank the Supervisory Board, to Mr. Hambrecht, my colleagues on the Board of Executive Directors and all employees for this cooperation, for this great support and this spirit of cooperation. It has always been great fun. Thank you very much.