Representatives attending the environmental conference held in Paris past Saturday called for a stronger and more genuine international environmental organization to better deal with the climate challenges. "We hope to establish a new world environmental organization which goes along the lines with the World Health Organization. It should be more powerful and recognized by the whole world," said the "Paris Appeal" released by the "Citizen of the Earth" summit. President Chirac and 40 countries support the proposal.
I wonder why the model here is the WHO and not the WTO? Are Countries afraid to treat "adverse environmental effects" in the same way that they treat "adverse trade effects" in the WTO, even though climate change is the "biggest market failure " of our time according to Nicholas Stern ? It is interesting here to note that key world polluters, including the US, China, India and Russia, are missing from the list of 46 countries that will be meeting in Morocco this spring to take the plan forward.
