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Oslo: Former US vice-president Al Gore and the UN's top climate panel shared the Nobel Peace Prize yesterday, in a major boost to the international campaign for action against global warming.
The award was given for their part in galvanising international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
The Nobel Committee said the award was made because of their efforts to draw attention to mankind's impact on the climate and measures needed to address it before rising temperatures bring droughts, floods and rising seas.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee said. Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film An Inconvenient Truth to warn of the dangers and urge action against it.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said.
"The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [ipcc] has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."
The citation also warned of the increased danger of conflicts if not enough is done to address global warming, blamed by many scientists on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
"I hope this will enhance further a sense of urgency," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the UN Climate Change Secretariat who wants governments to set an end-2009 deadline to work out a new long-term plan to fight global warming.
The award appeared to be a snub to President George W. Bush, who has doubted the science of global warming and rejected caps on emissions of gases believed to cause it, but the White House said it was happy for the winners.
After hearing the news, Gore pleaded for a greater sense of urgency. "We face a true planetary emergency," he said. "The climate crisis ... is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity."
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said winning the prize would underline the importance of the work by the panel - comprising more than 2,500 experts from more than 130 countries.
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