‘On the Way to CBD COP15: Business and Biodiversity’ was an event held on 18 June 2021 by the Sino-German Environmental Partnership (SGEP) and the German Embassy in Beijing, serving as a warm-up to the Business and Biodiversity Forum, one of the parallel sessions of the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP15) of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD). This event provided a platform for the exchange on the role of businesses in biodiversity conservation among Chinese and international companies and organizations, allowing companies to showcase their solutions and identify further synergies. The insights gained can serve as a reference for other stakeholders in the run-up to the CBD COP15 in Kunming. More than 100 participants from Chinese government institutions, various embassies, Chinese and international companies as well as non-governmental organisations joined the event. 

Mr. LIU Ning, Deputy Director-General of Department of Nature and Conservation, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and Deputy Director of the Office of the Executive Committee for the CBD COP15, together with Mr. Hendrik BARKELING, Head of the Economic Department and Minister Counsellor of the German Embassy in Beijing, delivered opening remarks. In their speeches, they called upon all companies and stakeholders to assume their leadership role and make pragmatic commitments towards reversing the trend of biodiversity loss and the harmonious coexistence of man and nature. Following that, the Foreign Environment Cooperation Office (FECO) gave an in-depth introduction on the ‘Business and Biodiversity Forum’, an official parallel activity of the CBD COP15, and the Global Partnership for Business and Biodiversity (GPBB). The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) shared insights from its global project ‘Private Business Action for Biodiversity’, which features biodiversity-friendly production and commercialization pilot projects in Brazil, India, and Mexico. 

Top-level representatives from the World Economic Forum, Ant Group, Veolia China, Elion Group, BASF, and Volkswagen showcased their corporate solutions on how to promote green lifestyles, restore wetlands, turn deserts into green space, and incorporate biodiversity into their supply-chain considerations. In the subsequent panel discussion, potential synergies between companies’ decarbonization and environmental conservation efforts as well as prospects for collaboration with policymakers and civil society were discussed. As a warm-up for CBD COP 15, this event provided a communication platform for Chinese and international companies and organizations in the field of business and biodiversity conservation. 

The CBD COP15 is scheduled to take place in Kunming in October 2021. During this conference, the world’s eyes will be on China, where a new ‘Post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework’ is expected to be agreed upon.