Focus on Arts and Ecology

The big environmental stories in the Chinese media this week (18-24 September)

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) and Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) have jointly published a position paper in preparation for an upcoming summit of the Convention on Biological Diversity. The paper gives clues as to what kind of role China will play as host country of COP15, the next round of global biodiversity talks due to be held in Kunming next May. 
 
The 26-page document, titled ‘Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth: China in Action’, reaffirms China’s support for multilateralism and active participation in the global governance of biodiversity. It details the country’s progress in biodiversity protection in areas of domestic policy, social participation, multilateral governance and international cooperation. 
 
Most notable is that it urges all parties to facilitate the adoption of an "ambitious, balanced and realistic" post-2020 global biodiversity framework.
 
Li Shuo, senior global policy advisor at Greenpeace East Asia, reacted on Twitter that the word "balanced" is a recent addition that was not present in a similar statement on biodiversity conservation and climate change made last year. He said that it “implies higher level attention to the balance among the three objectives of the Convention and between targets and implementation”. With less than eight months left before the conference, there are still considerable disagreements among parties as to what to achieve in Kunming, and the latest draft proposal still suffers from a lack of ambition.
 
But the gloomy picture painted by two recent reports on the state of world biodiversity leaves little time to waste. The Living Planet Report 2020 from WWF and the Zoological Society of London found that wildlife populations have declined by two thirds on average since 1970, due in large part to the same environmental destruction that has contributed to the emergence of zoonotic diseases such as Covid-19. 

Even the Convention on Biological Diversity’s own Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 report found that none of the 20 targets agreed on by its signatories in Aichi, Japan in 2010 had been fully achieved. Thousands of species have edged closer to extinction over the past decade. Observers widely attributed this failure to a lack of strong implementation and investment after targets were set.

At this critical moment, all eyes are on China to see if it will provide the necessary leadership as host of COP15 to reach a new framework on the restoration of a “balanced” world ecosystem.

Keep an eye on China Dialogue’s biodiversity content, including our ongoing reporting of COP15.