China and France issued a joint statement on April 7, following French President Emmanuel Macron's visit to China.

The joint statement said that climate, biodiversity and combating land degradation are priorities for both China and France. The two countries pledged to uphold the Beijing Call for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change issued in November 2019, and to maintain a high-level ambition within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, and the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework.

Combat climate change

Climate change has been acknowledged as a common concern of mankind. In 1992, 154 nations signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an international treaty that has provided an international mechanism for addressing climate change.

The convention formalized a principle called "Common but Differentiated Responsibilities (CBDR)," which acknowledged that developed and developing countries have different capabilities and responsibilities to act on climate change.

Later in 2015, the Paris Agreement was adopted by the UNFCCC. The agreement set long-term goals which include "to limit the global temperature increase in this century to 2 degrees Celsius while pursuing efforts to limit the increase even further to 1.5 degrees."

The engagement between China and the EU on climate change began in the 1990s. With the relationship between the two sides getting deeper and more mature, climate issues have gradually entered the core stage of bilateral cooperation.

In 2019, China and France issued the Beijing Call for Biodiversity Conservation and Climate Change, and President Xi Jinping and President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed international cooperation on climate change.

Promote ecological civilization

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, "biodiversity conservation has been elevated to a national strategy in China," wrote Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu.

Since 2019, China has become the largest contributor to the core budget of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), according to "Biodiversity Conservation in China," a white paper released by the State Council Information Office in 2021. 

Themed "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth," the first phase of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CBD, known as COP15, kicked off in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province in 2021.

Chaired by China and hosted by Canada, the second part of the COP 15 resulted in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF). The GBF includes four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2023, aiming to halt and reverse nature loss.

Ecological civilization sketches a world that benefits all human beings and the planet. In the recent joint statement by China and France, the two countries commit to inform their revised national strategies and action plans in accordance with the GBF before COP16.

China and France reaffirmed their separate commitments to carbon neutrality and climate neutrality in the statement. The statement also said the two countries would devote to marine protection, anti-plastic pollution, sustainable management of forest ecosystems and its protection.

Related reading: 

What are all these COP meetings about?

What is the post-2020 global biodiversity framework? 

Take action to address the challenges of global biodiversity crisis 

CGTN's 8K 'Wildlife Haven: China' reveals China's amazing biodiversity 

Shared by Nature: How to inspire more commitments to biodiversity finance? 

(If you want to contribute and have specific expertise, please contact us at nature@cgtn.com.)