Week in Review: Xi Opens COP15, Zambia Takes Action Against a Chinese Mine & SA Busts Chinese Abalone Ring

The UN’s biodiversity convention, known as COP15, opened on Tuesday in the southern Chinese city of Kunming. President Xi Jinping delivered the keynote address and announced that China will commit $230 million to help developing countries protect endangered plant and animal wildlife. Even as China is currently bingeing on coal to stem the ongoing electricity crisis, the President nonetheless promised to accelerate greater domestic use of solar and wind power. (CLIMATE CHANGE NEWS)

Four Chinese nationals are in custody in Cape Town after South African police raided illegal abalone processing facilities and seized $1.3 million (R20m) worth of the prized mollusks. The SA police’s organized crime unit, known as the Hawks, moved on three separate locations across the city on Tuesday and arrested nine suspects. South African abalone stocks are now dangerously low due in part to strong demand from buyers in China. (TIMES LIVE)