Environmental ‘Marshall Plan’ Proposed to Combat Pollution

An international group of legislators called for immediate action to curb “greenhouse” pollutants Wednesday and recommended enacting a “global Marshall plan” to help emerging countries cope with environmental problems.

At the end of a three-day conference on the environment, the delegates from 42 countries urged that nations commit themselves without delay to reducing pollutants that they said could cause climatic temperatures to rise 50% in the next 20 years.

The Interparliamentary Conference on the Global Environment could offer little more than suggestions for an environmental game plan. Its recommendations are not binding on any country, but many delegates to the conference, sponsored by the U.S. Congress, said they would push for legislative action at home.

The aggressive strategies on global warming suggested were not in line with the approach favored by President Bush and senior White House officials. Bush two weeks ago told an international environmental conference at the White House that further research must come before any commitment to specific anti-pollution measures.

The more than 200 lawmakers at the conference agreed to a broad range of actions aimed at protecting the atmospheric ozone layer, reversing the loss of forests and committing greater resources to population control.

The proposed “global Marshall plan for sustainable development and the environment” would be patterned after the U.S. economic assistance effort that helped Europe recover from World War II, conference officials said.