15 August, Beijing  – The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and NIO today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), for collaboration on biodiversity conservation and ecological protection in China’s protected areas and national parks.

Through the Clean Parks initiative, launched by NIO in 2021 as a platform to improve the management of protected areas and national parks, the partnership will look to galvanize the private sector to step up their efforts in biodiversity conservation and tackling climate change. In particular, this will be done by guiding enterprises to green their supply chain and piloting renewable energy solutions including electric vehicles and charging facilities. The partnership will also focus on enhancing the knowledge and ability of youth and women on ecological protection and energy conservation.

“UNDP has worked in China for over two decades on conservation and climate change together with the central government including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other ministries, as well as local governments in more than 20 provinces,” said Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Representative in China. “The partnership we are launching today looks to strengthen ecological conservation in China’s Protected Areas and newly established National Parks, focusing in particular on synergies between biodiversity protection and climate change.”

As a global smart electric vehicle company, NIO has been a pioneer in innovative green transportation solutions. Last December, the company established an initiative dedicated to investing in conservation efforts in protected areas worldwide.

“It's a great honor to have the United Nations Development Programme on board to support the Clean Parks Initiative with NIO, to build a clean and low-carbon energy circulation system in nature reserves,” said William Li, founder, chairman and CEO of NIO. “As part of this initiative, we will support social entrepreneurship to encourage young innovators to explore business solutions to advance biodiversity conservation and ecological protection.”

The launch of this partnership comes in the lead up to part 2 of the 15th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP15) to the Convention of Biodiversity (CBD) at the end of the year in Montreal where a post-2020 global biodiversity framework is expected to be adopted.

“With COP15-part 2 coming up in December, this partnership couldn’t be more timely,” said Trankmann. “Ecological protection and biodiversity conservation are high on the global and national agenda and I look forward to this partnership contributing to these priorities."