China calls on Canada for help in race to reach global biodiversity deal

Dec 16

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) was upgraded from endangered to vulnerable in 2016.Credit: Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures/National Geographic

By John Woodside

China is tapping Canada to help overcome the toughest negotiation hurdles at the United Nations’ COP15 biodiversity conference in Montreal in a diplomatic move that signals growing trust between the two countries.

In a letter sent to delegations Thursday, COP15 president and Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu announced his plan for finding agreement as countries’ environment ministers arrive in Montreal for the final rounds of negotiations.

At stake is the global biodiversity framework, an international pact for protecting nature expected to be on the scale of the Paris Agreement that countries hope to secure by the end of this weekend. Countries have been negotiating many parts of the agreement, but a handful of sticking points remain and threaten to push the talks into overtime — or collapse entirely if consensus can’t be found.

Peter Allan

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