Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize
Al Gore's film An Inconvenient Truth was an unlikely box office
hit
Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.
The committee cited "their efforts to build up and disseminate
knowledge about man-made climate change".
Mr Gore, US vice-president under Bill Clinton, said he was "deeply
honoured".
Mr Gore, 59, won an Oscar for his climate change film An
Inconvenient Truth while the IPCC is the top authority on global
warming.
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was "overwhelmed" by the
award.
He told a cheering crowd of colleagues and journalists outside his
office in Delhi that he hoped the award would bring a "greater
awareness and a sense of urgency" to the fight against global
warming.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the recipients' efforts to
"lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract
[climate] change".
The committee said it wanted to bring the "increased danger of
violent conflicts and wars, within and between states" posed by
climate change into sharper focus.
It highlighted a series of scientific reports issued over the last
two decades by the IPCC, which comprises more than 2,000 leading
climate change scientists and experts.
The reports had "created an ever-broader informed consensus about
the connection between human activities and global warming", the
committee said.
Mr Gore was praised as "probably the single individual who has done
most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that
need to be adopted", through his lectures, films and books.
The choice of recipients continues a trend of the Nobel Peace Prize
redefining the potential sources of conflict and threats to peace,
says the BBC's world affairs correspondent Mike Wooldridge.
'Planetary emergency'
Speaking in Washington, Mr Gore praised the IPCC, "whose members
have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years".
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri after winning the Nobel Peace Prize
in Delhi on Friday
The IPCC chairman said he was overwhelmed and stunned
"We face a true planetary emergency," Mr Gore warned. "It is a
moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
He said he would donate his half of the $1.5m prize money to the
Alliance for Climate Protection, reported the news agency
Reuters.
Correspondents say Mr Gore's selection has prompted supporters to
renew calls for him to stand in next year's US presidential race.
Until now, Mr Gore has said he will not run.
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC)
Established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)
and the United Nations Environment Programme (Unep)
Made up of more than 2,000 leading climate experts
Tasked with assessing scientific data on the risk of human-induced
climate change, its potential impacts and options for
mitigation
Does not carry out any research of its own
First Assessment Report published in 1990; its Fourth Assessment
Report called Climate Change 2007 to be published
mid-November
The IPCC, established in 1988, is tasked with providing
policymakers with neutral summaries of the latest expertise on
climate change.
The organisation involves hundreds of scientists working to collate
and evaluate the work of thousands more.
Mr Gore made a failed run for the US presidency in 2000.
Since then he has emerged as a leading climate campaigner. His 2006
documentary film, An Inconvenient Truth, was an unlikely box-office
hit and won two Oscars - though it was also criticised by a British
judge this week for containing nine errors, and for being
alarmist.
The Nobel committee closely guards the names of nominees, but this
year speculation was high that the recipient would be linked to
climate change campaigns.
The award comes just weeks before a key UN conference in Bali
intended to lay down a roadmap for the next round of reducing
greenhouse gas emissions.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7041082.stm
