The slogan “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets” seemed omnipresent in China in 2015, highlighting a crucial part of Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization. Yet this powerful formulation proved vague in execution, giving local policymakers new headaches on how to strike the balance between development and conservation in making new laws. China’s judiciary faced an even stickier problem. How do you try such cases in the absence of concrete legal text and sufficient legal precedents? 

For decades, western multinational companies have been profiting by exploiting plant, animal, or microbial genetic resources obtained from less developed countries. Take the neem tree, for example. Since the 1990s, international companies have registered more than 70 patents on products derived from India’s “tree of life.” Yet these patents have prohibited local people from using these trees (as they had for centuries) to make cosmetics, fertilizers, and medicines.

International companies have now turned their eyes to the high seas in a new hunt for genetic resources. Concerned they will be left out of the potentially profitable patents once again, developing nations are demanding equitable use and benefit sharing of genetic resources in ongoing global ocean treaty negotiations.

As countries prepare to gather for the Fifteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in December 2022, the stakes for global biodiversity couldn’t be higher. Over the last half century, global wildlife population sizes plummeted by 60 percent. A 2019 UN report, one among many, warned that the current global response to this accelerating loss of species is insufficient and that “transformative changes are needed to restore and protect nature.”

Last month, as global leaders met in Lisbon for the UN Oceans Conference, President Biden signed a National Security Memorandum to address the challenge of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. This event is a promising sign that the U.S. and other governments are accelerating the response to the threat that IUU fishing poses—not just to the environment, the economy and human rights, but also to global peace and security.

The Arctic is believed to be a pristine environment, far removed from littered city streets and toxic industrial emissions. I study human pollution and I found it hard to believe that my fellow researchers and I would find so much litter out here. It was even harder to believe that what we uncovered closely resembled the contents of my own closet, over 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) away in Toronto.

From Friday night fish fries to shrimp cocktails, people sheltering in place have learned how to cook their favorite dishes at home. As a result U.S. seafood sales have doubled during the pandemic. Globally, the United States ranks fifth in seafood consumption and China—where hunger for seafood has skyrocketed with rising incomes—is number one. While wild fisheries are on the decline, aquaculture is expanding to increase the global food supply.

“China is ready to host COP15” read the headline of a feature advertisement placed by the Chinese COP15 Executive Committee in Nature Magazine. The piece espoused the capacity and commitment of the Chinese negotiating team, which “comprises the nation’s best and brightest minds,” the Chinese institutions involved in hosting the event, and the urgency of the task at hand. The Convention on Biological Diversity’s 15th Conference of the Parties (CBD COP15), originally planned for October 2020, was delayed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is now planned as a two-part event: the first part was held online from October 11-14 2021; the second part will take place in Kunming, China in a hybrid format from April 25 – May 9 2022. Despite these delays, both the stakes and expectations are high for the event. CBD COP15 outcomes will not only shape the next decade in global biodiversity conservation but will reflect China’s potential as a new environmental leader and a contributor to multilateral global governance platforms more broadly.