Crucial UN biodiversity summit set for October

The United Nations' biodiversity summit, COP15, will take place in October in the Chinese city of Kunming after being delayed a year due to the pandemic, the UN said yesterday. The meeting is seen as a vital chance for nations to set guidelines for protecting nature and slowing the catastrophic pace of species loss. The UN said the summit would be held October 11-24, just a few weeks before a parallel UN conference on climate change, COP26, takes place in Glasgow. A preliminary biodiversity session will be held in August, it said, although a location is yet to be announced. Since 1970, wild animal populations of birds and fish have declined by nearly 70 percent, according to a WWF assessment. The UN said in September that nations had missed every one of the 20 ten-year targets to halt biodiversity loss they set themselves in 2010.