Kunming Summit on the Convention on Biological Diversity and China’s Environmental Diplomacy

Abstract

Beijing’s environmental diplomacy has gained growing momentum in recent years, reflecting China’s activism in a shifting global political and economic landscape. The upcoming 15th Conference of Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity in Kunming in southwestern China will be the first biodiversity-themed event Beijing will host since it signed up for global biodiversity governance in the early 1990s, offering another opportunity for Beijing to contribute its proposals and perspective to the global response to another slow-moving but deepening crisis. Despite the raised international expectations about the conference and the strategic action plan it is expected to produce, the focus of global biodiversity governance should be on delivering real results on existing pledges by addressing the major institutional shortcomings and building up national capabilities.