At the 8th EU-China Ministerial Environment Policy Dialogue on Tuesday 27 April, Environment Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevičius and Chinese Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu pledged to step up action to protect, conserve and restore biodiversity and ecosystems, the European Commission said the same day.
These commitments were made in anticipation of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, originally scheduled to take place in Kunming at the end of 2020, but postponed until October 2021. Both parties intend to contribute to an ambitious agreement on the post-2020 global framework.
“Threats to biodiversity, including forests, pressures on scarce natural resources, waters and oceans as well as the threat of pollution require strong governance. We need to work together and take the lead globally”, commented the Commissioner in a statement.
He expressed interest in working with China to promote sustainable and deforestation-free supply chains globally. Mr Sinkevičius also announced to his Chinese counterpart the presentation in May of the Commission’s ‘zero pollution’ action plan as part of the EU’s 2030 biodiversity strategy.
EU-China cooperation on pollution, deforestation, plastics and ocean protection will continue. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)