Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a keynote speech via video link at the leaders' summit of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) held in Kunming, southwest China's Yunnan Province, Oct. 12, 2021. Patrick Nijs, former Belgian Ambassador to China, said in an exclusive interview that Xi’s speech reemphasizes the direction to China and the global governance for building a community of all life on earth.

“I think COP15 provides a golden opportunity to China to show its commitment to biodiversity that indeed makes the earth full of vigor and vitality, and lays the foundation for human survival and development”. Nijs said.

“Xi’s speech is reemphasizing the direction to China and the global governance for building a community of all life on earth.” Nijs believes that sustainable development and ecology do have a social and economic component. We need to speed up efforts to foster a green way of development and secure a win-win of economic growth and environmental protection. Nijs said, “without China there will be no possible success in the ecological transition.”

Xi announced China's initiative to establish the Kunming Biodiversity Fund and take the lead by investing 1.5 billion yuan (about 233 million U.S. dollars) to support biodiversity protection in developing countries. Nijs said, “I hope other countries will join this.”

Nijs has always been concerned with environmental protection issues. In 2013, he and his wife Deng Minyan moved from Beijing to Dongchuan, Kunming, to explore sustainable agriculture. He said, “I decided to settle down in Yunnan because of my passion for nature. Yunnan is a unique mosaic of culture, people, animals, plants, insects and probably also bacteria, fungi, microorganisms in the soil as well. If you go to the north you are in high peaks. If you go to the south you are in the magic of the tropical Mekong landscape.”

He loves this red land, loves the kind people here. “I want to spend the rest of my life doing something for this beautiful planet,” he said, “we all need to move very quickly to protect the earth as our common homeland.”

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(Editors: Christine, Ines)