Interview: UN biodiversity chief calls COP15 'very constructive' so far under China's presidency

MONTREAL -- The UN biodiversity conference has been "very constructive" so far under China's presidency, a high-ranking UN official has said.

Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, executive secretary of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity also dismissed allegations that the event would tread the old path of the 2009 Copenhagen climate summit, where talks ended with an agreement deemed by environmentalists not ambitious enough.

"Copenhagen? We know negotiations are going on ... We should not think of that," Mrema told Xinhua on Thursday at the halfway point of the second phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the convention.

Noting the "openness and friendliness in the negotiations," Mrema praised China's continuous contribution as COP15 presidency.

"The summary of the presidency of COP is able to bring the different positions together," she said. "We are seeing good leadership."

Earlier this week, Mrema told a press briefing that negotiations on the post-2020 global biodiversity framework, a global roadmap for biodiversity conservation for this decade, are "still a bumpy road," as more discussions are in progress over such issues as striking a balance between ambition and pragmatism, monitoring and implementing the framework, as well as digital sequence information for genetic resources.

Thursday marked the beginning of the high-level segment of the meeting held here, where environment ministers across the world gathered for divisions on tough issues to set the framework.

Mrema said she is "very optimistic" that the framework will come out as anticipated, adding that the ministers' statements at the start of the segment all "underline that this COP has to be successful, and we need a victorious framework," which "indicates the ministers are game-ready, and they're not ready to go empty-handed."

"With the contact groups continuing, and then, we are seeing more and more brackets being reduced," she said, referring to the bracketed text to be debated on the non-paper. "So, these indicate positive progress."

"Implementation will be poor without resources, and this is the essence of the consultations already going on among ministers, because developing countries have been clear: without means of implementation, then there will be no ambition," Mrema said.

To have the framework in place will guarantee that science is listened to, change is made, and all stakeholders, including indigenous people, women, and youth in particular, are involved in its implementation, she said.