Sarkozy, opening a one-day conference on deforestation in Paris, said while there is “no alternative strategy” to the United Nations since it gives all nations a voice in a global arena, it is essential that there be changes to the system.
“The U.N. is absolutely indispensable and yet at the same time, it’s not working,” Sarkozy said. “I am certain that we need to reform the United Nations, otherwise the United Nations will end up in an impasse.”
The French leader repeated previous ideas for overhauling the Security Council, such as widening the number of members and apportioning seats on a regional basis.
He also pointed to the success of a small group of countries that were able to hammer out the Copenhagen Accord in a few hours as the model for how a future climate pact could be achieved.
It is time to scrap the format by which all issues are negotiated simultaneously by all countries under the 192-nation U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, where unanimous approval is essential, he said.
Sarkozy stressed that the method used to reach the Copenhagen Accord should be the template for a future global U.N. climate summit scheduled for December in Cancun, Mexico (Richard Ingham, AFP/Yahoo News, March 11).
The deforestation meeting, to be followed by a May conference in Oslo, is geared toward developing forest-preserving measures agreed on in principle at the Copenhagen conference.
Sarkozy said he hoped the conference will garner more funding pledges for forests, help organize how pledged aid will be disbursed and bring in the private sector.
Developed countries have pledged to raise $30 billion over the next three years to help poorer countries adapt to climate change and a total of $100 billion in annual aid by 2020 to help developing countries preserve forests, protect coasts and take other steps to adapt to climate change (Elaine Ganley, Associated Press, March 11). – DFM