BusinessGreen
October 15, 2021
The first phase of the COP15 Biodiversity Summit in Kunming, China closed today with the UN expressing confidence the week long talks had helped set the stage for the adoption of a new international treaty next year to ramp up global biodiversity protection.
The latest round of virtual talks delivered a wave of new funding pledges for nature protection and broad political support for a new set of global targets that would serve to curb rates of biodiversity loss over the next decade.
The COP15 Summit had been scheduled to take place this week with diplomats hoping it would finalise a new set of global targets for nature protection and restoration that would provide a boost to the parallel climate negotiations set to get underway at the COP26 Climate Summit in Glasgow next month.
However, the coronavirus crisis forced a second postponement of the global talks, with the UN and Chinese hosts staging a virtual round of talks this week ahead of the conclusion of the summit in person next spring.