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

Chinese President Xi Jinping will address the opening ceremony of the high-level segment of the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity via videolink on Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying announced in Beijing on Wednesday, while Chinese cities shine at the parallel sessions of the event with their experiences and extraordinary achievements in preserving biodiversity. 

Positive progress has been achieved and critical and difficult issues are expected to be addressed through high-level meetings with all parties' greater courage, wisdom and determination needed to close gaps and divides to promote reaching a final outcome at the key UN biodiversity conference, Huang Runqiu, China's Minister of Ecology and Environment, also the president of COP15, said at a press conference on Tuesday in Montreal. 

The UN biodiversity negotiation started last week and has entered a critical stage with less than one week left for discussion on the outcome document on reversing global biodiversity loss, Huang said. 

Huang said there will be a ministerial-level meeting scheduled from December 15 to 17 for negotiations on difficult issues concerning the document. It is expected that all the issues except for the package plans will be completed as of December 17 when the ministerial-level meeting stage concludes. The second phase of COP15 will run until December 19. 

The COP15, hosted by China in Montreal, Canada, has caught worldwide attention as it is expected to agree on a global biodiversity framework for the coming decade that will live up to global expectations. It is widely believed to have the potential to be a "Paris moment" for nature.

As the host country, China hopes that all the goals and commitments achieved at this conference will be acceptable to all parties and stand the test of time. The framework should balance ambition and pragmatism, and a resource mobilization system commensurate with the goals of the framework must be established to ensure the effective implementation of the framework and mobilize the full participation of a wide range of parties and stakeholders, Huang told the press conference.

Amid high expectations, there had been some doubts over China's leadership and whether the framework could be effectively implemented after the meeting, given the severity of the biodiversity situation the world is facing. According to data from the World Wildlife Fund, population sizes of wildlife in the world decreased by 60 percent globally between 1970 and 2014.     

Gathering so many parties to attend the conference and reach a consensus is a demonstration of leadership. As to the implementation, it requires further negotiation between different countries after the meeting, Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

So far, 167 ministerial representatives from 155 parties and two observer states have confirmed their attendance at the high-level meeting to be held from December 15 to 17. Meanwhile, senior representatives of 71 international organizations and institutions have confirmed their attendance. A total of 18 ministers and 35 heads of international organizations have confirmed they will deliver speeches at the high-level meeting, Huang revealed at the Tuesday conference.

China has also gained rich experience in maintaining biodiversity in the past 10 years that countries worldwide can draw on, experts noted.

China has made one of the biggest global contributions to the protection of nature, a senior representative of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), told the Xinhua News Agency during the second phase of the COP15.

"For nature conservation, China is winning the World Cup," said James Hardcastle, head of the IUCN's protected and conserved areas team.

China has established its first group of five national parks since 2021. In Hainan Province, the authenticity and integrity of the ecosystem have been promoted through the implementation of plantation withdrawal and transformation, vegetation restoration, and aerial corridor construction. These moves have effectively solved the problem of habitat fragmentation for gibbons.

Through years of hard efforts, China's biodiversity conservation has achieved remarkable results, effectively protecting 90 percent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 74 percent of national key protected wild animal and plant populations, Huang said at the second phase of the COP15.

China's achievements on biodiversity conservation are being shared at the second phase of the COP15 through the launch of the China Pavilion.

Six Chinese cities have been selected as national ecologically beautiful cities at the China Day activities, including Huzhou and Jiaxing in East China's Zhejiang Province and Kunming in Southwest China's Yunnan Province.

Huzhou was also conferred the title of International Cooperation Demonstration Zone of Ecological Civilization during the Sino-Quebec Cooperation Forum, an integral part of the second phase of the COP15 a few days ago. It is the only city in the world to be given the honor. 

China's biodiversity conservation achievements following first phase of COP15. Graphic: GT