France to propose WEO at Copenhagen meeting
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French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner will call for the creation of a World Environment Organization at the upcoming UN Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, the ministry said Friday.
Kouchner plans to propose the creation of the new UN body during curtain time of the climate change conference while meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the ministry said in a press briefing.
France regarded such an organization as an anchor for the 500-odd multilateral environmental agreements that are currently dispersed, said the ministry.
France believed that such an organization could also help implement the agreement that emerges from the Copenhagen conference, and hoped that the new UN body could be formed at the meeting, the ministry added.
Another motive of Kouchner's UN visit was to lobby for the financial-transaction tax, which demands a 0.005 percent levy on all trade of currency across borders.
The tax proceeds would be used to advance sustainable development concerning food security, education, health and climate change. Some 58 countries and organizations have voiced support for the tax, according to the ministry.
The 15th Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will be held from Dec. 7 to 18 in Denmark's capital Copenhagen.
Around 100 leaders from the UN member countries and about 12,000 delegates and specialists from more than 170 countries will attend the conference.
