Nobel Peace Prize for the Intergovernmental
Panel
on Climate Change
The (IPCC), co-sponsored by WMO and the (UNEP) has been awarded the jointly with Al Gore, former Vice-President of the USA and environmental campaigner.
The winners were chosen “for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change”.
WMO and UNEP established the IPCC in 1988 to provide world leaders and policy-makers with an objective source of information on the complex and challenging issue of climate change, particularly its potential environmental and socio-economic impacts, and possible response options. The IPCC Secretariat is hosted at WMO Headquarters in Geneva.
The award is recognition at the highest level of the role that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change—and through it the international scientific community—plays in raising awareness and understanding of the impact of human activities on the Earth’s climate.
The scientific assessments of the IPCC provide the international community with a better understanding of what causes climatic shifts and what can be done to address them to better manage land and water resources, thereby reducing poverty and vulnerability and contributing to sustainable socio-economic development.
The Prize will help the IPCC in its work, particularly in developing countries, to overcome gaps in climate monitoring programmes and in promoting adaptation and mitigation measures that governments can take to protect their citizens against natural disasters and extreme weather and climate events.
The IPCC is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report entitled Climate Change 2007 (see box). The reports by the three Working Groups already published provide policy-makers with a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the current state of knowledge on climate change:
When the was made on 12 October 2007, the Secretary-General of WMO, Michel Jarraud made a expressing his confidence that the award would inspire everyone, from individuals to decision-makers, to make the best use of the scientific knowledge about changing climate to take the necessary actions to protect the planet.
“We thank the Nobel Prize Committee for this prestigious recognition of the role that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has been playing in raising awareness of the impact of human activities on the earth’s climate.
IPCC, created and co-sponsored by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Programme, provides world leaders and policy-makers in all countries with the most authoritative scientific evidence on climate change.
We are confident that this award to IPCC and Mr Al Gore will inspire us all, from individuals to decision-makers, to make the best use of the knowledge obtained through science of our changing climate to take the necessary actions to protect our planet.”
|
Fourth Assessment Report: Climate Change 2007
- (Working Group I) was released in Paris on 2 February 2007
- (Working Group II) was released in Brussels on 5 April 2007.
- (Working Group III) was released in Bangkok, Thailand, on 4 May 2007.
The Synthesis Report integrates the information around six topic areas. It will be issued at the 27th session of the IPCC in November 2007 in Valencia, Spain. |
|
