Xi announces USD 233 million Biodiversity Fund for ecological protection

TIL Desk/World/Beijing/ Calling for ambitious, pragmatic and balanced global environmental protection targets, Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday announced a USD 233 million fund to support biodiversity protection in developing countries.

Xi was addressing a UN conference- Leaders’ Summit of the 15th meeting of Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity- via a video link in Beijing. We need to practice true multilateralism, and effectively honour and implement international rules, which are not to be exploited or discarded at one’s own will, he said.

The new environmental protection targets we set need to be ambitious on the one hand and pragmatic and balanced on the other, so as to make the global environmental governance system fairer and more equitable, he said.

On this occasion, I wish to announce China’s initiative to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion RMB yuan (USD 233 million) to support biodiversity protection in developing countries, he said and called for contributions from other countries to the fund.