A Global Marshall Plan for a Better World

• The four richest Americans have more money than the one
  billion poorest people in this world at this time. Is this a recipe for a
  better world?
• The United States spends more money for military in 32 hours
  now than the United Nations have at its disposal for an entire year.
  Is this a recipe for a better world?
• The industrial nations use as much of coal, gas, and oil in one
  day as mother nature has needed 500.000 days to create.

Is this a recipe for a better world?
By this scenario it is obvious to every person that today’s globalized world is on the wrong track. Even the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, which the World Community of the United Nations has agreed upon at the beginning of the new Millennium, have not yet brought worthwhile change. For instance, we now realize that the aim of halfing the number of hungry people in the world cannot be achieved.  
 
 There is the money, but the political will is not. In no century up to now humanity has accumulated so much material worth as in the last hundred years – but still hunger plagues the world today.There are still two billion people trying to exist on less than two USDollars a day, and 26.000 people starve to death every day. Facing this situation, the initiators of the Global Marshall Plan have worked out a realistic concept for a better world – based on a worldwide Eco-Social Market Economy and based on 100 per cent renewable energies.    
 
This means in concrete terms:

• ecological standards for a sustainable economy
• to remove the roots of terrorism without resorting to war
• to create a new world economy miracle based on a solar world economy
• overcoming hunger in the world 

A solar world economy means millions of new jobs, as has been proven in the World Renewable Energy Forum II, more environmental protection and more security. Thus the most important political question in the 21st century will be:War for oil or peace through the sun? Only a 100 per cent turnover to renewable energy can prevent conflicts for the remaining world resources.  
 
Our concept is to place Europe at the head of a worldwide movement for the realization of this Eco-Social Global Marshall Plan. The United States itself has shown after World War II that a Marshall Plan can be successfully implemented.With 1.3 per cent of their gross national product for about four years the United States has clearly demonstrated that Europe, which was totally destroyed, could be restored.Why should this success not be possible today? Why should all industrial nations together not be able to achieve a similar success story and open a new life perspective to the poorer countries of the world?  
 
The economic and global finance experts who support this Global Marshall Plan have estimated that 120 billion US-Dollar average a year will be needed to realize this plan.  
 
Let us put in perspective: The United States spends more than 400 billion US-Dollars per year just on military. Or another comparison:Today the industrial countries contribute 0.2 per cent of their gross national products for development aid.We would only need to double this amount to finance the aim of the Global Marshall Plan. 0.4 per cent of our gross domestic product is a small price to pay for a lasting, better and more secure world, isn’t it? 0.4 per cent that would only be one third of the 1.3 per cent invested by the United States after World War II. These figures clearly show that such a Global Marshall Plan can be financed realistically.
 
Therefore this plan has the support of leading figures as Kofi Annan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Hans Küng, Klaus Töpfer, Al Gore, George Soros, Hermann Scheer, Lutz Wicke, Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker and Franz Josef Radermacher, as well as members of the Club of Rome and the Club of Budapest. All these supporters have committed themselves to sustaining their efforts as long as it takes to see the Global Marshall Plan through to the end. If it really is our will, we can banish hunger and malnutrition to the museum of history within the next decades.We can ensure that no child in this world will suffer from hunger in the future.  
 
Therefore the precondition is a constant supply of sustainable energy. No energy – no development.Today’s mixture of fossil and atomic energy has no future. The oil reserves will perhaps last for forty more years. But our sun will last for about 4.5 billion years. And the greatest economic advantage of ecological energy is that sun, wind, and water do not charge us.  
 
In the last decade the prize of fossil energy has doubled while the prize of renewable energy has been cut in half.Within a few years renewable energy will actually be cheaper than the present fossil energies. In the interest of poorer communities of the world we especially have to compare the advantages and disadvantages of the various forms of energy available in the future. ”Old energies” are running out.They are getting more and more expensive. Even today they are not affordable by the poorest countries in particular. The old energies destroy the environment and give rise to a continuous flow of refugees from the South to the North. Only today there are 18 million refugees in Africa in search of new water sources, according to Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program.  
 
And George W. Bush has given us a foretaste of what future wars will be like in the global struggle for energy.War always leads to chaos, but renewable energies lead to peace. The sun, the wind or biomass energy never have been a reason to wage war, and they never will be. Each solar cell, each solar panel and each windmill is a sign for peace. But each nuclear power plant is an invitation for terrorists. The sun is the only source of energy income that this world has. Something else is only the conversion oft the sun’s energy or indeed exploitation.Without the sun there will be no life, no work, and no jobs.  
 
But: There is no sun belonging to Bush, no Saddam-Hussein- Sun nor Bin Ladens’; no Bush-Wind and no Bin-Laden-Wind as well. The sun shines for all.There also is no Aral-Sun, no Esso-Sun and no BP-Sun. 2000 years ago Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount: ”Our heavenly father lets the sun shine on the just and unjust equally.”That means on Bush, on Bin Laden and on all of us.    
 
The next steps to realize the Global Marshall Plan:

• In 2006 the supporters of the Plan will contact the European Union and the national parliaments as well as the European Commission.We will suggest the European Union to start an Initiative for a Global Marshall Plan. The European Union should introduce a corresponding concept in future as common European position with all future world summits.   
• In 2007 (I): The commission issue would be deployed and a report would be developed.  
• In 2007 (II):A worldwide consensus about the Global Marshall Plan would be reached.   
• Preparation for the implementation at the concerned organizations in 2007.   
• At the Rio plus 15 World Summit in 2007, the implementation of Global Marshall Plan would be decided.   

The years 2008 till 2015 will be the real period of implementation. And beyond 2015 we hope to have a worldwide Eco-Social Market Economy.To reach these goals we need the support of the international economy. Our most important two goals once more:  

• halving the number of people with an income of less than one US-Dollar per day    
• the possibility of primary school education for all children. 

School education and renewable energies are the most important conditions for a better world – and this means a peaceful world.  
 
Currently, the Initiative for a Global Marshall Plan is supported by a group of Non-Governmental Organizations and Associations as well as by prominent personalities. In the next months the basis shall be broadened and internationalized significantly, both in Europe and later worldwide. We ask all of you to support us!