What do Glasgow, Sharm El Sheikh, Kunming, and Montreal have in common? Shipbuilding cities? Exotic holiday destinations? Which is the odd one out, and why do they matter to the future of the planet?
You may remember the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow last year. The follow-up conference will be taking place shortly in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El Sheikh where there will be an assessment of whether countries are doing enough to tackle climate change (almost certainly not, according to the independent think tank Chatham House).
But I want to draw attention to a less-well known but no less critical strand of international diplomacy, the Convention on Biological Diversity, which also originated at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 and whose latest meeting was due to take place in Kunming, China in 2020. The Covid pandemic put paid to that and after repeated postponements the meeting is now taking place in Montreal this December. Kunming is therefore the odd one out as it’s the UN conference that didn’t happen, but in compensation China still gets to chair the meeting.
