Nation will deepen global cooperation to protect ecosystems via framework

Officials and experts have called to enhance financial support for the implementation of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, as the world strives to restore biodiversity loss.

They made the remarks in a forum themed on implementing the framework in Beijing on Tuesday, which was held at the annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development.

Established in 1992, the council is a high-level international advisory body for the Chinese government, composed of officials and experts from home and abroad.

The framework is an outcome of milestone significance from the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity, said Huang Runqiu, minister of ecology and environment, while addressing the forum.

Chaired by China, COP15 was first held in Kunming, Yunnan province, in October 2021 and then in Montreal, Canada in December last year.

The framework is not only ambitious, but also realistic, balanced and effective. It, for example, historically includes the target of having restoration completed or underway on at least 30 percent of degraded terrestrial, inland waters, and coastal and marine ecosystems, said Huang, who is also COP15 president.

The framework also decided to establish a framework fund, and raise international financial flows from developed to developing countries, he continued.

Following the approval by the Global Environment Facility's governing board in June, he said, the facility's seventh assembly in Vancouver last week agreed to launch the Global Biodiversity Framework Fund.

"Developed countries should take the lead in implementing their commitments and increase their support for developing countries in terms of finance, technology and capacity building," Huang stressed.

Under the framework of the green Belt and Road Initiative and South-South cooperation, China will deepen international cooperation on biodiversity conservation and make full use of the Kunming Biodiversity Fund to support fellow developing countries to the best of its capability, he said.

President Xi Jinping announced the initiative to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan ($206 million) in the fund at the first segment of COP15 in Kunming.

Highlighting a series of other targets in the Kunming-Montreal framework, Inger Andersen, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, emphasized that financing and means of implementation are critical to making these targets come true.

She said that parties also agreed to reduce the risk from pesticides and hazardous chemicals by at least half, reduce the rate of introduced invasive species by 50 percent by 2030 and eradicate and control those already introduced.

"We have seven years to get the job done, which means early implementation is critical. That makes financing and means of implementation critical, too," she said.