Cop15 half-time report: China prompts fears of new ‘Copenhagen moment’

Negotiators say divisions mean risk is growing of a weak final agreement similar to Denmark summit in 2009

Talks to halt the destruction of nature very much hang in the balance", sources have said, as environment ministers from around the world begin to arrive in Montreal amid concerns about a lack of Chinese leadership of the Cop15 talks.

At the halfway stage of the summit in Canada, negotiators at the UN biodiversity summit have said divisions are contributing to the growing risk of a Copenhagen moment", referring to the 2009 UN climate summit when talks ended with a weak final agreement in the Danish capital, not the Paris moment for nature" leading environmental figures had been calling for.