COP15: vice-premier vows more ambitious biodiversity plans for China

Han Zheng declares in conference opening ceremony China will ‘make the protection of biodiversity an important task’

COP15’s aim for specific biodiversity targets helps quantify results and maintain accountability, says director of China’s Institute of Science and Development

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The Chinese city of Kunming is hosting the UN Biodiversity Conference – known as COP15. Photo: STR/AFP

Published: 9:30am, 12 Oct 2021

Beijing pledged to roll out a more ambitious national action plan on biodiversity conservation, as it launched its presidency of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15) on Monday.

“We will compose a national strategy and action plan for biodiversity protection for a new period, and make the protection of biodiversity an important task,” Han Zheng, vice-premier and a member of the seven-strong Politburo Standing Committee, said on Monday.

Vice-Premier Han Zheng told the COP15 opening ceremony that more public education on biodiversity would be delivered in China. Photo: AP

He added that biodiversity protection would be incorporated into the mid and long-term planning of all regions in China, and that more public education on biodiversity would be rolled out.

In 2010, China published its Convention on Biological Diversity Strategy and Action Plan (2011-2030). On Friday, Shandong in eastern China became the first province to update its provincial biodiversity action plan for 2011-2030, pledging to speed up local legislation on biodiversity protection, among other tasks.

Han’s commitments were made at the opening of the 2020 UN Biodiversity Conference, which began a week-long meeting on Monday in the southwest Chinese city of Kunming.

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