Jacques Chirac, who once called the Kyoto Treaty the first step to “authentic global governance” is moving further down that path. According to Agence France Presse, on Saturday he called

… for the United Nations to replace the U.N. Environment Programme with an agency that has more power to oversee environmental matters. Chirac said his plan has the backing of 46 nations.
Speaking at a “Citizens of the Earth” meeting in Paris a day after the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its 4th Assessment Report, Chirac said the United Nations should spin off UNEP into “a genuine international organization to which all countries belong along the lines of the World Health Organization.”
He said the new agency would be charged with guaranteeing “a new human right — the right to a safe and protected environment.”

A cynic might call this a right to poverty. I’d be inclined to agree with the cynic.

Luckily there are signs that the moral voice of the developing world is alongside the US in resisting this. Brazil, China and India are all opposed. This is another illustration of John O’Sullivan’s thesis that China and India will be allies against European transnationalists.