Al Gore awarded with Nobel Peace Prize

Climate change campaigner Al Gore and the IPCC 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, 59, who was behind a blockbuster film on climate change said he was “deeply honoured” while Rajendra Pachauri, chairman at the IPCC – the top authority on global warming – said he was “overwhelmed”.

Announcing the award, the Norwegian Nobel Committee praised the recipients’ efforts to “lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract [climate] change”.

It said it wanted to bring the “increased danger of violent conflicts and wars, within and between states” posed by climate change into sharper focus.

The committee highlighted the series of scientific reports issued over the last two decades by the IPCC, which comprises more than 2,000 leading climate change scientists. The reports had “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming”.

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.

From an article by the BBC News.