Ambassador Toledo meets Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin on climate action and environment protection

European Union

On 27 September, the EU Ambassador to China Jorge Toledo met with Vice Minister Zhao Yingmin of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China.

The meeting focused on how the EU and China can cooperate in order to contribute to the success of forthcoming key international meetings that will take place between late October and late November: the UN Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) COP16 in Cali, the UN Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) COP29 in Baku, and the negotiations on the Global Plastics Treaty during the fifth session of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5), in Busan.

Ambassador Toledo expressed the EU’s expectations attached to EU-China cooperation towards delivering progress on climate action and the protection of the environment. He was accompanied and supported by Ambassadors of Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark to China, as well as colleagues representing the Embassies of Belgium, Estonia, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, and Slovenia.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, desertification and land degradation, and pollution are all interconnected and aggravate existing challenges, including security concerns for all countries, disproportionately impacting local communities in fragile contexts. The EU is committed to working with partners to address this multiple crisis, leverage synergies, and accelerate a global, just and inclusive green transition. Joint and coherent solutions to the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are important, including upscaling nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches.