Promoting China’s biodiversity conference, UN officials warn that the world is in bad shape
- ‘The Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that mankind and nature are a community of shared future,’ says Huang Runqiu, China’s environmental minister
- Event heralds the 15th meeting of signatories to UN Biodiversity Convention, to be held in October in Kunming
As the pandemic starkly illustrates, the world must overhaul its relationship with nature, reverse destructive economic practices and protect fragile ecosystems, officials said Friday in advance of a China-hosted United Nations meeting on biodiversity set for October.
“The Covid-19 pandemic reminds us that mankind and nature are a community of shared future. We must deeply reflect to the relationship between mankind and nature, strengthen biodiversity conservation and effectively maintain global biosafety,” said Huang Runqiu, China’s environmental minister.
“Biodiversity is the basis for the survival and development of mankind, as well as the lifeblood and foundation of the shared future for all life on Earth.”
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China vows carbon neutrality by 2060 during one-day UN biodiversity summit
The coming meeting – called “COP15: Road to Kunming, Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth” – is set for the capital of Yunnan province for October 11-24 after being twice rescheduled due to the virus. In its latest iteration, the meeting will be a hybrid gathering of virtual and in-person participation.
Kunming will be the latest in a series of meetings by nearly 200 nations that signed a key UN Biodiversity Convention in the early 1990s. In UN-speak, COP15 refers to the 15th such meeting by these countries, known as the Conference of the Parties.
Many of the roughly 175 Zoom participants attending Friday’s run-up event, including numerous UN ambassadors, spoke eloquently on the need for action, shared goals and importance of consensus while touting their own country’s progress in helping the environment.
“We should protect the nature and ecological environment like we protect our eyes,” said Zhang Jun, China’s permanent representative to the United Nations. “Green mountains are gold mountains.”
