COP15: Canada to replace China as venue for UN biodiversity summit

The COP15 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity will be relocated to Montreal due to fears the Chinese government would postpone the event again

By Adam Vaughan

A long-delayed UN biodiversity summit will be held in Canada this year rather than China as originally planned, after concerns that the Chinese government would postpone it until 2023 due to covid-19.

The COP15 meeting of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to bring together the world’s governments to agree a new deal on halting the loss of animals, plants and habitats globally by 2030.

However, the conference has been repeatedly delayed from its original date of October 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic, despite other major environment summits taking place. Now, a decision has been taken by the COP bureau to relocate the meeting from Kunming, China, to Montreal, Canada, on 5 to 17 December, three sources have told New Scientist. An official announcement by the CBD is expected imminently today.

Holding such a major summit at relatively short notice will be a logistical challenge for the Canadian government, as such international events with thousands of delegates are usually planned years in advance. Talks resume tomorrow in Nairobi, Kenya, to prepare the ground for a final deal agreeing new biodiversity targets in Montreal. One of the goals being discussed is to make 30 per cent of Earth’s land and oceans a protected area, up from 16.64 per cent for land and 7.74 per cent for oceans now.