UN Biodiversity Conference to be relocated from China to Canada

Originally set for Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, in April this year, the meeting was postponed and relocated due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Xinhua news agency reported.

Chinese Environment Ministry said Beijing will continue to act as chair of COP15 in guiding substantive and political affairs.

The first phase of COP15 was successfully held both online and offline in Kunming last October. Its achievements provided a strong political impetus to global biodiversity governance and the adoption of the post-2020 global biodiversity framework.

According to Xinhua news agency, China attaches great importance to biodiversity protection and will continue to work with all parties and stakeholders in the second phase of COP15 to advance negotiations on the global biodiversity framework and to make more contributions to building a shared future for all life.

Earlier on Tuesday, said UN Convention on Biological Diversity executive secretary said the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) will be shifted to Canada due to the continued uncertainties related to the ongoing global pandemic in China.

"Due to the continued uncertainties related to the ongoing global pandemic, China, as COP President, with the support of the Bureau, has decided to relocate the meetings from Kunming to a venue outside of China. After close consultation among the Government of China as COP President, the Bureau, the Secretariat and the Government of Canada as host of the Secretariat, it has been decided that the second part of the Meetings will take place at the seat of the Secretariat, in Montreal, Canada from 5 to 17 December 2022," executive secretary Elizabeth Maruma Mrema said in official notification.

China, as COP 15 President, will continue to preside over the Meetings, with the logo and the theme of COP 15 maintained.

"China will also convene the High-Level Segment and lead the facilitation of negotiations. To this end, the Government of China has agreed to fund the travel of Ministers from Least Developed Countries and Small Island Developing States to Canada to participate in the High-Level Segment," she said.

"The Secretariat will work closely with the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Government of Canada, and with the indispensable support from all Parties, to ensure the logistic arrangements for the second part of the Meetings are in place for December 2022," she added. (ANI)