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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Environment
Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston

‘Sleepwalking through extinction’: China urged to end delays to Cop15 summit

A view of violet-coloured blossom on a row of trees in a built-up city
Jacaranda trees blooming in Kunming. The date for the UN convention on biological diversity summit is being pushed back again and may be moved to another country. Photograph: Xinhua/Rex


China has been urged to name a date for a key UN nature summit this year, amid growing frustration with Beijing and concerns among experts that we are “sleepwalking through this cataclysmic climate extinction”.

After two years of delays, governments had been scheduled to meet in Kunming, China, for Cop15 in late April to negotiate this decade’s targets to halt and reverse the rampant destruction of ecosystems and wildlife crucial to human civilisation. It had been hoped the summit would be a “Paris moment” for biodiversity, with China holding the presidency for a major UN environmental agreement for the first time.

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