"The COP15 conference, which is due to agree a new global deal to protect biodiversity, has been postponed several times as host nation China grapples with the pandemic".
"KUALA LUMPUR - U.N. negotiations to seal a global pact to protect nature - already delayed several times due to the COVID-19 pandemic - are set to be moved to Canada in December after an agreement was made with host nation China, environmentalists said on Monday.
About 195 nations are tasked with finalising a new accord to halt and reverse harm to plants, animals and ecosystems at the United Nations summit, known as COP15, which was due to be held in the third quarter of 2022 in the Chinese city of Kunming.
But with China's borders closed because of its zero-COVID strategy, the host nation last month proposed postponing the talks, already delayed four times, yet again until 2023 - a move widely rejected by other countries keen to land a deal.
Li Shuo, a policy advisor at Greenpeace China, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that governments had now decided COP15 will take place from Dec. 5-17 in Montreal, which is home to the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)."
Michael Taylor reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation June 20, 2022.
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