COP15: China’s Xi Jinping pledges US$232m for new fund to protect world biodiversity
- The Kunming Biodiversity Fund will help developing nations better protect their ecology, President Xi tells UN conference
- Xi also pledged to accelerate solar power development in China, with scale of projects set to surpass India’s entire renewable energy portfolio
Xi also pledged to accelerate the development of wind and solar power in China.
“[We will] step up our efforts in the development of renewable energy, and accelerate the planning of large-scale photovoltaic and wind power projects in [our] deserts and nearby areas,” he said. “Construction for phase one of these projects, with a combined installed capacity of 100 million kilowatts, has begun.”
Xi did not give details of the solar projects, which are bigger in scale than India’s entire renewable energy portfolio.
02:40
China pledges US$232m to world biodiversity conservation at COP15 conference in Kunming
Xi delivered his remarks at the Leaders’ Summit of the COP15 conference, hosted by China’s southwestern city of Kunming. The conference this year is expected to adopt a joint declaration from the high-level segment of the UN Biodiversity Conference 2020 (Part 1).
The document is expected to emphasise the efforts and commitments of many countries to protect 30 per cent of their land and sea areas through conservation by 2030, according to a draft of the declaration published on the conference website.
Xi also announced the official establishment of China’s first batch of national parks, including one in the Tibetan Plateau holding the headwaters of three major Asian rivers, one for giant pandas in the southwestern province of Sichuan, and a third for Siberian tigers and Amur leopards in northwestern China.
“The combined protected area [of these parks] is 230,000 sq km, covering nearly 30 per cent of [China’s] land area,” he said.
Xi also called for making the global environmental governance system “fairer” and “more reasonable”, as well as promoting “real multilateralism” – an apparent dig at the US, which has sought to rebuild ties with its allies as it ramps up its rivalry with China.
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The COP15 conference is being held as China seeks to claim the moral high ground on global environmental governance while facing headwinds from the United States and its allies on a wide range of issues that include geopolitical, economic, technical and human rights concerns.
Those pledges come alongside Beijing’s efforts to avoid the appearance of bowing to pressure from the US and its allies.
National parks are one of the most important types of protected area in China, with 10 pilot programmes launched in 12 provinces since 2015.
Roughly 18 per cent of China’s land area is currently nature reserve. The country’s protected area system has brought 90 per cent of terrestrial ecosystem types and 71 per cent of key state-protected wildlife species under state protection, according to a white paper on China’s biodiversity conservation efforts released last Friday.
Li Shuo, a global policy adviser for Greenpeace East Asia, said funding and a strong implementation mechanism should be the biggest legacy of China’s Convention on Biological Diversity presidency.
“The Kunming Biodiversity Fund launched today should be able to help jump-start an urgently needed conservation on biodiversity finance,” Li said.
“International public finance has an important leveraging effect on other sources of finance,” he added. “COP15 needs to see donor countries from the developed world contributing in this regard.”
China has expanded funding for biodiversity conservation in recent years. From 2017 to 2018, more than 260 billion yuan was allocated annually for biodiversity-related work, or six times the investment in 2008, according to the white paper.
Xi’s announcement about national parks was a step further towards better preserving biodiversity, Li said.
“China’s domestic efforts in setting up natural reserve systems should help it to spearhead the march towards the global ‘30 by 30’ goal,” he noted.
01:24
China to reduce carbon emissions by over 65 per cent, Xi Jinping says
Xi also said China would increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25 per cent during the same period, up from a previous commitment of 20 per cent.