High political importance must be given to COP15, says Chinese envoy

UNITED NATIONS, April 20 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese envoy said Tuesday that high political importance must be given to COP15, the biggest biodiversity summit in a decade scheduled to take place October in Kunming, China.

"We need to give high political importance to COP15," Zhang Jun, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, told the high-level event of Raising Ambition for Nature.

COP15 refers to the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP 15) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

"Secretary-General (Antonio) Guterres has repeatedly stressed that this is a critical time to reshape our relationship with nature, and humanity needs a healthy planet to achieve sustainable development," said the ambassador.

"Biodiversity is the foundation for human survival and development. We should explore a path of harmonious coexistence between man and nature through COP15," he added.

The envoy said that efforts must be made to "accelerate consultations on the Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework," noting that the framework is expected to be the major outcome of COP15, and will set the targets and pathway for global biodiversity conservation for the coming decade.

In addition, Zhang said concrete actions must be taken to protect biodiversity.

"There is only one earth. We must protect the ecological environment as much as we take care of our eyes. We must take environmental issues seriously at all times, not only during meetings and conferences," he noted.

On China's efforts in protecting the nature, the ambassador said that in recent years, China has been working hard to build a beautiful country and put its 1.4 billion people on a path of green development. This is significant contribution to the development of global ecological civilization.

"All countries should fulfill their commitments to reverse biodiversity loss and ecological degradation. Irresponsible acts such as discharging nuclear waste water into the sea must be stopped before it is too late, to avoid ecological catastrophes whose impacts can never be undone," he said.