WILLY BRANDT, ADOLFO PEREZ ESQUIVEL and 28 other Nobel Prize laureates suggested that the foundation create a Nobel environmental prize. Yesterday, the Nobel Foundation rejected their idea.
''We fear an inflation of prizes would seriously diminish the value of those already existing,'' said STIG RAMEL, chairman of the Nobel Foundation.
The prizes, first awarded in 1901, are given in the categories of medicine, chemistry, physics, literature and peace. A sixth prize, the Nobel memorial prize in economic sciences, was established in 1968 and is financed by the Bank of Sweden.