A key U.N. summit tasked with protecting biodiversity officially opens in China and online Monday, as countries meet to tackle pollution and prevent mass extinction weeks before the COP26 climate conference.<\/p>\n
Beijing, the world\u2019s biggest polluter, has sought to position itself in recent years as a world leader on climate issues after Washington\u2019s withdrawal from international commitments under the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
The online session that begins Monday afternoon \u2014 setting the stage for a face-to-face meeting in April \u2014 will see parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) working out the details of a new document that will set targets for protecting ecosystems by 2030.<\/p>\n
Up for debate are the \u201c30 by 30\u201d plan to give 30% of lands and oceans protected status \u2014 a measure supported by a broad coalition of nations, as well as a goal to stop creating plastic waste.<\/p>\n
China has not yet committed to the \u201c30 by 30\u201d plan.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s COP15 gathering, hosted in the southwest city of Kunming, was originally set for 2020 and postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n
Around one million animal and plant species are threatened with extinction amid human encroachment on habitats, over-exploitation, pollution, the spread of invasive species, and climate change.<\/p>\n
The CBD has been ratified by 195 countries and the European Union \u2014 although not the United States, the world’s biggest historical polluter \u2014 with parties meeting every two years.<\/p>\n
Division over targets<\/p>\n
China said on Friday it has \u201cgiven high priority to the protection of biodiversity by establishing a network of protected areas and national parks.\u201d<\/p>\n
And this week Beijing is expected to unveil a statement known as the Kunming Declaration, which would set the tone for its environmental leadership.<\/p>\n
But sharp divisions remain over the targets for urgent action over the next decade.<\/p>\n
France and Costa Rica are among a coalition of support for the initiative to declare 30% of oceans and lands protected areas before 2030.<\/p>\n
But when scientists called for more ambitious protection of half of Earth\u2019s biodiversity, Brazil and South Africa strongly opposed.<\/p>\n
Other sources of tension surround financing, with developing nations asking rich countries to foot the bill for their ecological transitions.<\/p>\n
These issues will be at the heart of negotiation sessions set to take place in Geneva in January 2022.<\/p>\n
The biodiversity discussions at COP15 are separate from weightier COP26 summit set to begin next month in Glasgow, where world leaders are under pressure to act on the climate crisis.<\/p>\n
The Glasgow summit faces a packed agenda dominated by efforts to persuade countries such as China and India to commit to binding \u201cnationally determined contributions\u201d towards net zero emissions.<\/p>\n
China has pledged to peak carbon emissions in 2030 and reach zero emissions by 2060, but environmentalists have flagged the huge amount of coal-fired power being brought online in recent years by the world\u2019s top emitter of greenhouse gases.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Source: Voice of America<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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