Interview: UN biodiversity leader "optimistic" about adoption of global framework in Kunming

LONDON/GENEVA, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Crucial UN biodiversity meetings in Geneva on a global deal to better protect nature that is due for approval later this year in China's Kunming are moving in the right direction, said the executive secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) on Tuesday.

After negotiations wrapped up, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema told Xinhua via video link that she is optimistic the post-2020 global biodiversity framework will be ratified at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, after several delays due to COVID-19.

As people, countries, all stakeholders want to see a "transformative, ambitious, universal and action-oriented post-2020 global biodiversity framework," she said, "the general agreement is there."

"Clearly, the world is waiting for a global biodiversity framework," Mrema said, voicing hope that these negotiations are going to "continue in the lead up to Kunming."

The physical meeting of the resumed sessions of the CBD's scientific and implementation bodies, and the working group tasked with developing the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, took place in Geneva on March 14-29.

The talks, originally scheduled to take place on Jan. 12-28, were postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

They will now set the stage for the COP15 biodiversity summit in Kunming, which, according to Mrema, are envisaged between the end of August to the beginning of September.

Mrema also stressed that an intersessional meeting will take place in Nairobi at the end of June to further progress on the development of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

CHINA'S ROLE

The Kunming Declaration was adopted last October and commits to ensuring the development, adoption and implementation of an effective post-2020 global biodiversity framework to reverse the current loss of biodiversity.

It also aims to ensure that biodiversity is put on a path to recovery by 2030 at the latest, towards the full realization of the 2050 Vision of "Living in Harmony with Nature."

In February, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warned that 9 percent of all the world's species will likely be "at high risk" of extinction even if warming is capped at the ambitious Paris target of 1.5 degrees Celsius.

During last year's COP15 meetings in Kunming, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China will take the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan (233 million U.S. dollars) to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund.

The fund will be used to support developing countries in biodiversity protection, he said.

"That is clearly China's commitment, not just to the process, but to ensure the effective implementation of the framework when it is adopted. Of course, now we are seeing China playing the leadership role as the President of the COP in the preparations for the COP in Kunming," Mrema said.