Canada and China prepare to open Cop15 biodiversity summit despite rifts

More than 10,000 scientists, government officials and activists will gather in Montreal this week for the world’s most important biodiversity conference, eager to hammer out a deal to stem habitat loss around the world and preserve sensitive ecosystems.

The UN Cop15 biodiversity summit opens on Tuesday, and will see countries negotiate this decade’s targets for protecting nature after more than two years of pandemic-related delays and just over two weeks since the end of the Cop27 climate meeting in Egypt.

There is growing hope that the summit will not only bring about a plan to save the natural world but could also begin to mend the deep rifts between the co-hosts, China and Canada.

In recent weeks Canada has charged a Chinese national for espionage, alleged that China interfered in a federal election, and opened an investigation into an alleged secret network of illegal “police stations” operated by China in Toronto. At the recent G20 summit in Jakarta, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, publicly rebuked the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, after Canadian officials leaked details of their conversation.

“When you look at what happened recently, Canada is not the flavor of the month in Beijing. President Xi has very little regard for Prime Minister Trudeau,” said Guy Saint-Jacques, Canada’s former ambassador to China. “And while China owes Canada for hosting this summit, officials won’t want to go out of their way to praise Canada in any way or be seen as grateful.”

The Cop15 summit, delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and China’s strict public health policies, was originally scheduled to be held in Kunming in China but was moved to Montreal when Canada agreed to co-host the event.

Trudeau plans to attend, but China has not issued invitations to world leaders, and Saint-Jacques suspects officials are keen to keep the event at a “working level”, shunning much of the pomp associated with global gatherings.