People gather at the Kunming Dian-chi International Convention & Exhibition Center, a venue of the first phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province. The second phase of the COP15 will be held in Montreal, Canada in Dcember. File photo: VCG

Ahead of the opening of the second part of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), China's Minister of Ecology and Environment and COP15 president Huang Runqiu said on Tuesday that standing at the crossroads of biodiversity conservation, China, as chair of the conference, will spare no effort in promoting and coordinating all parties to adopt the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), writing a new chapter of global biodiversity conservation.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at Wednesday's press briefing that China attaches great importance to biodiversity protection. Since it assumed the COP15 presidency, China has advanced the COP15 process with the highest level of political will and most vigorous practical actions, a strong contribution China has made to global biodiversity protection. 

China will continue to play its role as President, the spokesperson said, closely cooperate with all Parties and stakeholders towards the conclusion of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework and successful completion of all items on COP15's agenda, and contribute to the full attainment of the three main objectives of the CBD, namely the conservation, sustainable use and sharing of the benefits of biodiversity.

"Our planet's ecosystems are facing an unprecedented crisis, with human activities already altering 75 percent of the terrestrial environment and affecting 66 percent of the marine environment. It resulted in more than 85 percent of wetlands lost, and one-quarter of the world's species threatened with extinction, according to the IPBES 2019 global assessment report," Huang said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The first part of the COP15 was held in 2021 in Kunming, Southwest China's Yunnan Province, while the second part was postponed and relocated to Canada due to the country's grave COVID-19 situation, with China retaining the presidency of the conference.
 
While the venue for the conference has been moved, China, as chair of the conference, has always managed to overcome the impact of the epidemic and respond to the expectations of the international community with practical actions, Huang said in reiterating China's commitment at Tuesday's event.

During the COP15 leaders' summit held in Kunming last October, Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a four-point proposal to start a new journey of high-quality development for humanity and announced a series of measures China would take as the host country, including the initiative to invest 1.5 billion yuan ($215 million) to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund.

Since the first part of the conference, China has convened nearly 40 meetings of the presidium and more than 100 bilateral and multilateral coordination meetings and seminars at different levels to promote greater consensus among all parties, Huang noted.

More than 10 percent of the commitments and contributions have been made by Chinese nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), enterprises and other stakeholders. 

Some Chinese NGOs and enterprises have pledged to invest 2.55 billion yuan over the next 10 years to promote more efficient conservation in some 100,000 square kilometers of protected land, and to encourage and guide more than 100 organizations to participate in the committed actions.

Once again standing at the crossroads of biodiversity conservation, Huang said that all parties wish to take emergency action and seek an effective answer to robustly address the challenges of the crisis and reverse the loss of biodiversity as soon as possible.

However, a number of challenges still lie ahead in discussions among parties within the COP15.  

Conservation, sustainable use and benefit sharing are the three main objectives of COP15, while it remains challenging to find a way to reconcile them to ensure a framework that is both ambitious and pragmatic.

In terms of resource mobilization, there is still a large gap in funding requirements to ensure the achievement of the framework, and there are still differences in funding mechanisms, Huang said. 

The second part of the COP15 is scheduled for December 7-19, under the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth. It is intended to formulate and adopt the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), which should ensure biodiversity loss is halted and reversed by 2030, and that we live in harmony with nature by 2050, said Huang, adding that China has exercised leadership and coordination in its efforts to advance negotiations for the framework. 

Global Times