China to include biodiversity in economic plans

China will incorporate biodiversity protection in development plans in all regions and sectors, Vice Premier Han Zheng said on Monday at the opening of UN talks aimed at making progress on a global deal to halt mass extinction.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Protection, told the opening of the meeting in the city of Kunming, that the world had reached “a moment of truth” when it comes to protecting its ecosystems.

China has vowed to make protecting nature a priority after decades of rapid development and urbanisation devastated ecosystems, put dozens of species on the brink of extinction and raised the risk of lethal zoonotic diseases like Covid-19.

After an opening ceremony featuring an ethnic minority musical performance and a film lauding the safe migration of 15 Asian elephants across southwest China this year, Han said China would “make sure its important species and ecological resources were fully protected”.

“We will formulate a national biodiversity protection strategy and action plan for the new era, incorporate biodiversity protection in mid- and long-term development plans of all regions and sectors as an important task,” he said.

The biodiversity talks, known as “COP15”, are aimed at building momentum for the signing of a new global biodiversity treaty on reversing massive species loss after countries failed to achieve any of the targets set in Aichi, Japan, in 2010.

Han also said China was committed to international cooperation on conservation, including in connection with its extensive and controversial Belt and Road Initiative, aimed at building infrastructure and energy links through Asia to the Middle East, Africa and Europe.

Experts worry about the environmental impact of China’s economic ambitions around the world.

“We need to make sure that China’s pledge for biodiversity includes the impact internationally,” said Nathalie Seddon, Professor of Biodiversity at the University of Oxford.

“It is one thing cleaning up supply chains within China but the biggest impacts they have on biodiversity are arguably outside China, in the Afro-Tropics, in South America,” she added, noting China’s huge demand for soybeans and growing demand for imported beef.

Mrema warned the world had not achieved the necessary breakthroughs from 2011-2020 and was not yet able to safeguard the ecosystem services key to human wellbeing.