World Future Council to be launched 2007 in Hamburg

The World Future Council is Ready to Go

Hamburg, May 2007: The city of Hamburg will provide the core funding for the launch and initial phase of the WFC. The Head Office of the WFC will be sited in Hamburg from September 2006 and the full WFC inaugural conference will be held there in the second quarter of 2007. The other WFC offices will continue to operate.

The First Mayor of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, Ole von Beust, and the prominent Hamburg entrepreneur, Dr. Michael Otto, have agreed to provide 5 million Euros over the next three years to fund the WFC in a public-private partnership. The city will contribute 50% from public funds and Dr.Otto personally 30%. The Mayor and Dr.Otto have jointly committed to raise the remaining one million Euros from other donors.

The WFC Initiative had been negotiating with several suitable cities in different parts of the world for such a guarantee, in return for seating the WFC Secretariat and holding the main board and council conferences in the city which first made this commitment.

Jakob von Uexkull, President of the World Future Council Initiative, warmly welcomed the announcement: ‘We are delighted that Hamburg will host the Secretariat of the World Future Council. This is a huge step forward, for which I am very grateful to everyone involved. Now begins the huge task of fulfilling the many expectations which the WFC Initiative has raised. ‘The WFC team is now in the process of identifying key staff. Hamburg has expressed great interest in hosting several of the planned WFC commissions, especially on Climate Change and Energy. Additional funding will need to be raised to finance these as well as to provide longer-term security and build a global organisation with a presence in different parts of the world.

The Hamburg announcement has met with a very positive media and public response, including from the political opposition. It is hoped that the support for the WFC will become as broad-based as the support in Sweden for the Right Livelihood Awards (‘Alternative Nobel Prizes’), initiated by Jakob von Uexkull and presented in the Swedish parliament with the support of all political parties.

Media Contact

World Future Council

London: Alistair Whitby
Tel: : +44 (0) 207 863 88 33

Hamburg: Anne Reis
Tel: : +49 40 39 80 35-53

World Future Council

The World Future Council is a new global forum to protect the interests and rights of future generations. Consisting of 50 prominent personalities from the worlds of governments, parliaments, business, civil society, science and the arts, the World Future Council works with policy-makers and citizens world-wide to identify and implement the best policies for a sustainable future.