Imagine that for more than two years the world had decided not to bother setting a future target on action to avert climate change. That governments had accepted a status quo where one country repeatedly postponed a landmark UN climate summit despite other major meetings happening amid the lingering covid-19 pandemic. There would be outrage. Leaders would line up to condemn the limbo. Thousands of people would protest in the streets over inaction on such an existential issue.
Yet when it comes to protecting the natural riches of our planet鈥檚 animals, plants and ecosystems you don鈥檛 have to imagine. China was meant to host the UN Convention on Biological Diversity鈥檚 COP15 conference in October 2020, to thrash out a new set of goals for the decade ahead to arrest the decline of nature. But it has delayed four times because of the pandemic. Last month it聽, to 2023. Next Monday, a decision is due by organisers on accepting that timeline or finding a country that will host it sooner.
Enough is enough. We can鈥檛 wait another year to thrash out a deal that will bring pressure to bear on governments that are failing to protect the species and habitats upon which humanity depends for food, medicines, wonder and much more. Two species of African elephant last year聽. The Amazon rainforest, the lungs of the world and a biodiversity hotspot,聽is being trashed at rates unseen in modern records. The list goes on.
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It is time for China to step aside. It is now hurting rather than helping efforts to stop the destruction of nature. The Chinese government must give the summit to another country 鈥� such as Canada, which hosts the UN secretariat responsible for biodiversity.
It is right to take public health concerns seriously. But聽China鈥檚 relentless pursuit of 鈥渮ero covid鈥�聽is a choice it has taken, and isn鈥檛 a good reason for putting international biodiversity action on hold. There are now several precedents for countries holding major environmental meetings, from Stockholm+50 last week to UN climate talks in Bonn this week. The UK brought together 40,000 people for COP26, a major climate summit,聽last year, even though it arguably got lucky just before聽Omicron spread widely. And UN biodiversity negotiations themselves will resume in Nairobi from 21 June.
No one I鈥檝e spoken to knows what the Chinese government is thinking. It isn鈥檛 clear whether it will dig its heels in over such a prestigious event or will relinquish it. Other countries have only recently begun to bring pressure to bear on China. They need to turn it up.
Continuing the hiatus has consequences for our forests, rivers and wild places. 鈥淏iodiversity should not be an afterthought, and this [delay] seriously undermines political will and government attention to the biodiversity crisis,鈥� says Susan Liebermann at the Wildlife Conservation Society. Without targets, there is no international peer pressure on governments. For example, the UK has temporarily聽paused publishing data tracking the state of the country鈥檚 biodiversity, with no international outrage.
This isn鈥檛 about blaming China. It is about recognising that biodiversity underpins the natural world we all depend on and that we all suffer from this delay on international action. The important thing is agreeing a new set of biodiversity goals for 2030, and that means putting our common good before the national pride of hosting the COP15 summit. A decision on where to hold the meeting in 2022 must happen before officials arrive for the Kenya negotiations this month.
Liebermann compares the biodiversity crisis to an out-of-control train careening towards a rickety bridge. We need to fix the bridge and put brakes on the train. Instead, no one is driving and people are still debating when we should fix the bridge, she says. China can still save us from this train crash.
