@MEE 

On 26 September, The Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China held a roundtable with a theme of the Road Leading to the Success of CBD COP15: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth. Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment and President of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), chaired the roundtable. Inger Andersen, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme; Elizabeth Mrema, Executive Secretary of the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity; and Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change of Canada; as well as senior representatives of international organizations attended the roundtable. Manish Bapna, President and CEO of NRDC, was invited to speak at the meeting as a foreign member of the 7th China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development. 

Taking place before the second phase of CBD COP 15 in Montreal, Canada, the Roundtable aimed to provide a platform for Ministers and other high-level government representatives as well as key stakeholders to discuss and exchange views on such topics as how to ensure the success of COP15 and achieve an ambitious and pragmatic Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). 

Bapna emphasized that the international community should work together to address global challenges, including biodiversity loss, and promote synergistic governance of the climate and biodiversity crises, which requires not only setting ambitious targets but also rebuilding and consolidating trust between developed and developing countries. 

He suggested that parties need to agree on at least three key things to ensure that COP15 moves towards success and to deliver and implement an ambitious and pragmatic GBF. The first is to set highly ambitious and quantifiable targets, such as protecting at least 30% of land and oceans by 2030, in order to guarantee food security, improve climate resilience and take into account human livelihoods. Secondly, to end any exploitation, use, and trade in wildlife that leads to biodiversity loss. In addition, Parties should reach a consensus and commit to close the biodiversity funding gap, and developed countries should fund biodiversity conservation efforts in developing countries.