Poverty, Climate on Davos Agenda

Los Angeles Times ^ | 01-27-2005 | Sebastian Rotella

[boris]

Poverty, Climate on Davos Agenda

At annual Alpine event, France's Chirac urges international taxes to fund Third World aid.

By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer

DAVOS, Switzerland — British Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac urged political and economic leaders Wednesday to take drastic action against poverty and global warming as the World Economic Forum began its annual meeting here.

Blair and Chirac used the gathering of major world figures at this Alpine resort to speak for a European Union that was trying to forge an assertive foreign policy targeting social and environmental causes. In contrast to the major initiatives and strong turnout by European leaders, there were notably fewer high-level U.S. officials present than in previous years.

And the opening messages highlighted tensions between Europe and the U.S. Whereas Blair called climate change one of the most urgent international challenges today, the Bush administration remains a holdout from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Chirac proposed new international taxes to fund the fight against poverty and disease in the developing world and soften the alleged damage done by what the French see as aggressive, U.S.-driven economic globalization. Chirac's proposal, delivered by videoconference hookup, and his praise for the United Nations seemed likely to clash with Washington's free-market views and distrust of the world body.

[snip]

Chirac outlined an experimental international tax that initially would be used to finance AIDS programs. The idea could involve levying taxes on international financial transactions, capital flows into countries whose bank secrecy laws attract tax evasion, or ship and plane fuel.

Funds also could be raised by placing a $1 tax on the 3 billion airline tickets now being purchased each year, Chirac said.

[cinives]

We are taking action on poverty - we're spreading freedom, which we all know is the only way out of poverty other than winning the lottery and if you believe those stats, lottery winnings don't last long either.

And global warming ? What warming - global temp is lower today than 40 years ago. Shouldn't we be worried about global freezing as we were back in the 70's ? It's 9 deg here in Philly - doesn't feel warm to me :)

[hauerf]

Ok, Boris, where is the "CHIRAC ALERT" on this post? Without any warning, I read all the way down to the part where Chirac's thoughts were mentioned. So who's going to clean up my keyboard?

[Petronski]

Davos, the Hands of Fate

[Petronski]