French president expects to attend 2nd part of COP15 in person

KUNMING - French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday that he expects to attend the second part of the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15) in person.

"The partly virtual format of this COP is the consequence of a global health crisis which reminds us how much our health, our economic prosperity, as well as our collective security, are inseparable from a healthy nature," he said in a video speech for the COP 15.

The first part of the COP15 kicked off Monday in Kunming, the capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province. The second part of the meeting, which is expected to be held next year, will review and make a decision on the "post-2020 global biodiversity framework", a blueprint for biodiversity conservation for the next decade.

He also called for the adoption of an ambitious global framework that meets the challenges and expectations of various societies.

"It is up to our generation to reverse the trend and recreate virtuous synergies with nature," he said.

It is necessary to forge a direct link between the health of nature and humanity, he said, underlining that "we will not live healthy on a sick planet".

This conference is the first global conference convened by the United Nations on the topic of ecological civilization, a philosophy proposed by China.