Former Vice President Al Gore has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Jimmy Carter was the last American to win the prize in 2002. The award citation to Gore stated, “His 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.” It also said that he “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”.

“We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level,” he said in a statement.

Gore also said he would donate all of his share of the proceeds to a non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the US and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

Gore’s prize was shared with the United Nation’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN body comprised of around 3,000 atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, ice specialists, economists, and various other experts. The Nobel committee praised the IPCC, which is considered the world’s top authority on global warming, for two decades of scientific reports which have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming”. It is only in this past year however that climate change has been at the top of the world’s agenda. The UN climate panel has scheduled talks to replace the 1997 Kyoto Protocol on climate.

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