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Saturday, Oct 13, 2007
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Nobel Peace Prize for Gore, U.N. climate agency

Panel on climate change headed by Rajendra Pachauri

— PHOTOS: AFP and V. SUDERSHAN

CLIMATE WARRIORS HONOURED: The former U.S. Vice-President, Al Gore, at a fundraiser political campaign in San Francisco, California, on Thursday. (Right) Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Rajendra Pachauri at his office in New Delhi on Friday.

OSLO/NEW DELHI: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.

Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' had been widely tipped to win the prize. The win is also likely add further fuel to a burgeoning movement in the United States for Gore to run for president in 2008, which he has so far said he does not plan to do.

Gore called the award meaningful because of his co-winner, calling the IPCC the ``world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis.''

He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.

``We face a true planetary emergency. ... It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity,'' he said. ``It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.''

Gore said he planned to donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

In its citation, the committed lauded Gore's ``strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.''

Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for criticism.

But, in a nod to the 2008 elections, he said ``I am very much in support for all who support changes.''

``Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president,'' Mjoes said. ``Many did not listen ... but he carried on.''

The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.

In its citation, the committee said that Gore ``has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians'' and cited his awareness at an early stage ``of the climatic challenges the world is facing.

The committee cited the IPCC for its two decades of scientific reports that have ``created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming.''

"a sense of urgency"

Lending an Indian connection, the 2007 Nobel Peace prize was today awarded jointly to UN's top climate panel headed by eminent environmentalist R K Pachauri and former US Vice President Al Gore, giving a big boost to the international campaign for action against global warming.

Pachauri(67),Chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC), who was in Delhi when the award was announced by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo,expected the Peace prize to add a "sense of urgency"" to the fight against global warming.

The IPCC set up in 1988 comprises 3,000 atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, ice specialists, economists and other experts and is the world's top scientific authority on global warming and its impact.

Gore and the IPCC were cited by the Nobel Committee for "their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."

An elated Gore(59) told Pachauri on telephone from Geneva that they should work together to combat climate change.

"We congratulated each other," Pachauri,who has a trade mark beard, said, adding that "Gore told him "we must work together.we should meet as soon as possible."

"This is Pachy. I am so delighted and so privileged to have the IPCC shae with you.... I will be your follower and you will be my leader,"" Pachouri told Bill Clinton's former Vice President.

Pachauri thanked his colleagues and wellwishers who assembled outside his office as he cracked a bottle of champagne and sprayed some on them to a loud applause.

The joint winners will receive the 1.5 million dollar prize in Oslo on December 10. PCC Spokeswoman Carola Traverso Saibante said in Geneva that the Nobel selection was a surprise.

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