The award seemed 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 and praised their work.
Mr Gore, who lost narrowly to Mr Bush in the 2000 presidential election, and the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize.
The committee awarded the prize from a near record field of 181 candidates for their efforts to draw attention to mankind’s impact on the climate and measures needed to address it.
“Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man’s control,” the committee said.It warned that climate change — linked to droughts, floods and rising seas — could threaten living conditions across the world, prompt mass migrations and increase the risk of wars.
“We wish to put world climate on the agenda in connection with peace,” committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said.
Since leaving office in 2001, Mr 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 IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming,” it said.
The award was seen raising pressure on the world to agree a new deal to combat global warming at a UN climate conference in Indonesia in December. Mr Gore and the IPCC will collect their prize in Oslo on Dec 10, while it is underway.
Congratulations poured in from world leaders, including UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.—Reuters