Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend COP15 — starting on Dec. 5 — despite China's plan not to invite heads of state
Reuters
Publishing date:Nov 28, 2022 •
Polars bears hunt for beluga whales on the shores of Hudson Bay. The COP15 conference on protecting biodiversity begins in Montreal on Dec. 5.
PHOTO BY OLIVIER MORIN /AFP via Getty Images
SHANGHAI — China will lead talks to secure an “ambitious and pragmatic” new global pact to preserve biodiversity at a U.N. meeting that begins next week in Montreal, but implementing the deal remains the biggest challenge, Chinese officials said on Monday.
Representatives of nearly 200 countries will gather starting on Dec. 5 and running to Dec. 17 to secure a “post-2020 framework” to protect habitats and ecosystems and ensure the sustainable and equitable use of biological resources.
Zhou Guomei, head of the international department of the environment ministry, told reporters that negotiations so far had not been “plain sailing” but focused on an ambitious deal that was “also pragmatic, balanced, feasible and achievable.”
Originally set to be held in China’s southwestern city of Kunming, the meeting, known as COP15, was relocated this year because of tough zero-COVID curbs. China will continue to serve as president.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend COP15, despite China’s plan not to invite heads of state — a decision criticized by green groups. Chinese President Xi Jinping is not expected to go.
COP15 is the 15th conference of parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The pact was signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and later ratified by about 195 countries, excluding the United States. Resulting negotiations and conventions are designed to safeguard plant and animal species, and ensure natural resources are used in sustainable ways.
Because the United States never ratified the original CBD treaty, it does not play a formal role in negotiations, although it will send a delegation to COP15 and recently appointed Monica Medina as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources.
SHANGHAI — China will lead talks to secure an “ambitious and pragmatic” new global pact to preserve biodiversity at a U.N. meeting that begins next week in Montreal, but implementing the deal remains the biggest challenge, Chinese officials said on Monday.
Representatives of nearly 200 countries will gather starting on Dec. 5 and running to Dec. 17 to secure a “post-2020 framework” to protect habitats and ecosystems and ensure the sustainable and equitable use of biological resources.
Zhou Guomei, head of the international department of the environment ministry, told reporters that negotiations so far had not been “plain sailing” but focused on an ambitious deal that was “also pragmatic, balanced, feasible and achievable.”
Originally set to be held in China’s southwestern city of Kunming, the meeting, known as COP15, was relocated this year because of tough zero-COVID curbs. China will continue to serve as president.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will attend COP15, despite China’s plan not to invite heads of state — a decision criticized by green groups. Chinese President Xi Jinping is not expected to go.
COP15 is the 15th conference of parties to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). The pact was signed at the Rio Earth Summit in 1992 and later ratified by about 195 countries, excluding the United States. Resulting negotiations and conventions are designed to safeguard plant and animal species, and ensure natural resources are used in sustainable ways.
Because the United States never ratified the original CBD treaty, it does not play a formal role in negotiations, although it will send a delegation to COP15 and recently appointed Monica Medina as special envoy for biodiversity and water resources.
In addition, President Joe Biden has pledged to protect at least 30 per cent of U.S. land and coastal waters by 2030, as part of the broader international campaign for 30×30. The campaign forms a central piece of the nature pact to conserve at least 30 per cent of the planet’s land and oceans by 2030, hence 30×30.
In last year’s first phase of talks, more than 100 nations signed the Kunming Declaration for urgent action to include biodiversity protection in all sectors of the global economy. But they were unable to reach consensus on issues such as funding conservation in poorer countries. Canada is among the signatories.
Zhou said there were still differences on a number of issues, and success would depend on an implementation mechanism for resources and financial support to be mobilized.
A previous biodiversity pact signed in Aichi, Japan, in 2010, set 20 targets to try to slow biodiversity loss by 2020. None of those targets was met in full.
Countries need to “fully consider” the attainability of any new targets, said Cui Shuhong, head of the ministry’s natural ecology department.
“We should learn fully from the experience and lessons during the implementation of the Aichi targets, not only to boost the ambition and confidence in global biodiversity conservation, but also to be down-to-earth and realistic,” he added.
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