ENDS Daily - 19/06/00
Italian environment minister Willer Bordon and his French counterpart Dominique Voynet last week called for a new international environmental organisation. The proposed "environmental WTO," based on the model of the World Trade Organisation, would give coherence to a "fragmented" series of international green conventions, they said. The call follows a suggestion made last month by Dutch environment minister Jan Pronk, for creation of a new global judiciary body for the environment (ENDS Daily 17 May).
The two ministers, who met in Rome on Thursday, said they were worried about European countries' likely failure to meet the greenhouse gas emissions ceilings set by the Kyoto Protocol. The EU should agree on a common position on ratification, ahead of the Hague conference on climate change (COP6), time-tabled for June 2001, Mr Bordon and Ms Voynet agreed.
The need to incorporate environmental accounting within economic and industrial policy was also a priority, while continuing caution was needed on genetically modified foods, the ministers concurred.
Follow up: Italian environment ministry (http://www.minambiente.it), tel: +39 06 57 22 52 80.:
