COP15: UN Biodiversity Summit moved from China to Canada, set to take place in December

A United Nations summit on Biodiversity due to take place in China has been relocated to Canada. The UN Biodiversity in a statement announced that the second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) will take place between 5 to 17 December in Montreal under the Presidency of China. The second phase of the COP15 was due to be held in China's Yunnan Province in April, according to ANI. However, the meeting was postponed and relocated to Canada due to the "continued uncertainties related to the ongoing global pandemic. 

The meetings will be presided over by China while the Bureau, the Secretariat and the Canadian government will act as the host of the Secretariat, according to the statement released by the UN Biodiversity. Furthermore, the logo and the theme of COP15 will be maintained. Notably, the first part of COP15 was held in Kunming in October 2021, with leaders and the United Nations Secretary-General reinforcing their commitment to addressing the biodiversity crisis. Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, in the statement said, "Due to the continued uncertainties related to the ongoing global pandemic the Bureau, has decided to relocate the meetings from Kunming to a venue outside of China." Mrema in the statement further added that the COP Presidency and Bureau have acknowledged the need to hold the second part of the meetings in 2022. 

UN Biodiversity Conference to take place in Canada 

According to the statement released by the UN Biodiversity, China will also hold the High-Level Segment and facilitate the negotiations. The summit due to be held in December is aimed at authorising the final version of the draft UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), BBC News reported. As per the news report, the decisions in the second part of COP15 will be taken on how the world will work on reducing the extinction risk that threatens more than one million species, protecting 30% of land and sea and eliminating the funds spent on environmentally-damaging government subsidies as well as restoring degraded ecosystems. 

Image: Twitter/UNBiodiversity/Shutterstock