UN biodiversity conference held in Kunming
The United Nations (UN) meeting on biodiversity known as COP15 took place this week in the spring city of China's Kunming.
It was the largest global gathering on the topic in a decade and is expected to provide a global roadmap for conserving and restoring biodiversity, and ecosystems for the next 10 years.
The COP15 conference started on Monday and took place between 11-15 October in the southwestern city of Kunming. The theme of the conference is "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth."
Minister for Environment and Forest Md Shahab Uddin led an 11-member delegation to the 2020 United Nations' Biodiversity Conference.
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Due to the pandemic situation, the Minister and other members of Bangladesh joined the conference online while the Deputy leader of the delegation, Bangladesh Ambassador to China Mahbub-Uz-Zaman, and his deputy Dr M. Nazrul Islam attended the event on-site in Kunming.
Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, French President Emmanuel Macron, and other world leaders delivered speeches at the event via video links.
The leaders emphasised articulating transformative action plans, encompassing the whole of the government approach and integrating all walks of life, nature-based solutions, adopting bold decisions with concrete action plans and commitment, strong monitoring with headline indicators so that it does not falter again.
President Xi Jinping of China made a bold commitment to contribute 1.5 billion RMB for biodiversity conservation.
He advocated high-quality development for all countries on the principle of ecological civilization.
He said people's prosperity, job, poverty alleviation, happiness, fair and equitable distribution of resources need to be incorporated in the ambitious and balanced action plan.
United Nations (UN) Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called for the global consensus on ending the biodiversity crisis that has threatened the survival of humankind.
In his remark, the Environment Minister Md Shahab Uddin delineated how Bangladesh, since the inception of the country, under the guideline of the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, is totally committed to conserve and protect her rich biodiversity.
The Bangladesh Minister also said that a concrete action plan needs to be supported by adequate finance. To this effect, he stressed the allocation of at least $800 billion per year, which constitutes 1% of global GDP to conserve and improve biodiversity.
Out of these funds, a half should go to the developing countries, he added.
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will convene in two phases.
The first segment is held from Monday to Friday where most of the international guests took part virtually. The second part is scheduled for next April-May also in Kunming City.
