United Nations chief Kofi Annan hailed France’s idea to tax airline tickets to fund development aid on Tuesday, in an address at the opening of an international conference in Paris.
”President [Jacques] Chirac has shown real leadership in efforts to find innovative sources of financing to help the world achieve the Millennium Development Goals,” Annan said, referring to a 2000 agreement between countries to combat poverty, hunger and disease in developing nations.
He urged other countries to follow suit, noting that Chile was also implementing the tax and Britain has said it plans to use money from an existing airline surcharge to the same end.
”Such initiatives have many virtues: they are practical; they are targeted at those who can afford it; they can be implemented rapidly; and they are flexible so that, over time, more countries can join,” Annan said.
Under Chirac’s initiative — to come into force in France in July — every passenger boarding a flight in France will pay an extra one to €40 ($1,2 to $47) on their ticket, depending on the distance travelled and the class they are flying in.
The money would initially go to combating HIV/Aids mainly in Africa, by subsidising anti-retroviral medicine.
Airlines and some countries such as the United States have expressed hostility to the idea, however, saying it would add another burden to an industry already struggling with high oil prices and increased competition.
But Annan told the conference, which gathered ministers from around the world to look at innovative sources of financing for development, that the initiative should be more widely backed.
”I urge other countries to join” an international drug purchase facility mooted by France and Brazil to boost drugs access for Aids and HIV sufferers, he said.
”Financing for development is also an area where political courage is needed. We must not rule out ideas solely for fear of controversy,” he said.
He added that he encouraged such initiatives to take shape away from UN control.
He also said he was committed to reforms to make the UN more effective for development and peace and that on Thursday he would ”introduce another set of proposals for management reform with this goal at their core”. – AFP
