In Paris, Swiss President says financial system reform is urgent

The meeting of some 40 countries ended with only small steps. Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Swiss President Alain Berset on Friday hailed momentum at a summit in Paris aimed at a new global financial pact to help the most vulnerable cope with climate change.

Berset told a press conference at the end of the two-day summit, that the international financial system needs to be “more in tune with the times and more sustainable”. Describing the agenda as “urgent”, he appreciated the informal nature of the summit and stressed the “need to have a framework that allows us to move forward together in a very creative way”.

Attending the summit of some 40 countries, Berset also met with French President Emmanuel Macron. He described bilateral relations between Switzerland and France, which have been strained over Swiss purchase of F-35 jets from the US rather than France’s Rafale fighters, as “moving in the right direction”. 

The summit was called by Macron to make concrete ideas from the last COP climate summit in Egypt, ahead of the next one in the United Arab Emirates at the end of the year. The French president said there was “consensus on a profound reform of the international system so that it can better respond to development needs”.

However, the meeting ended with only a series of small steps and without any big joint declaration. Countries are expected to continue working on concrete proposals, and Macron has announced a follow-up summit in two years. Contentious issues include proposals for a tax on global shipping and other big greenhouse gas emitters, and how countries should go about setting up a loss and damage fund.