Former US vice president Al Gore and the UN climate panel have been awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize today for raising awareness of the risks of climate change.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee chose Mr Gore and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to share the 10 million Swedish krona (€1 million) prize from a field of 181 candidates.
Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee
"[Mr Gore] is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the committee said in its award citation.
"The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming," it said.
Since leaving office in 2001 Mr Gore (59) has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming, and last year he starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truthto warn of the dangers of climate change and urge action against it.
He also spearheaded last July's Live Earth world wide concerts to urge fans and governments to fight global warming.
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said he was overwhelmed by the award. "I can't believe it, overwhelmed, stunned," Mr Pachauri told reporters and co-workers after receiving the news on the phone at his office in New Delhi. "I feel privileged sharing it with someone as distinguished as him," he added, referring to Mr Gore.
The IPCC, which comprises 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations, issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate changes ranging from more heat waves to floods. It was set up in 1988 by the United Nations to help guide governments.
In recent years, the Norwegian committee has broadened its interpretation of peacemaking and disarmament efforts outlined by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel in creating the prize with his 1895 will. The prize now often also recognises human rights, democracy, elimination of poverty, sharing resources and the environment.
Mr Gore and the panel are the second laureates to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental action, after Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai was given the award in 2004.
The honour will be formally awarded at a ceremony in Oslo on December 10th, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death in 1896.
Green Party leader and Minister for the Environment John Gormley said the Nobel award was a "fitting prize" for Mr Gore and the IPCC.
"Together they have proved the science and delivered the message that we have a decade to agree and implement measures to avoid the catastrophic effects of climate change," he said. "The award should give a new impetus to the UN climate change conference in Bali in December and highlight the need for all governments to sign up to a post-Kyoto agreement to tackle climate change."