Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive
Director, congratulates Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore
Statement by Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and Executive Director, UN Environment
Programme (UNEP), in Response to Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore Jointly
Winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
Nairobi, 12 October 2007 - The Nobel Peace
Prize Committee has today made it clear
that combating climate change is a central
peace and security policy for the 21st century.
The two winners -the IPCC and former US
Vice-President Al Gore- have contributed
significantly to elevating public attention
on the issue of global warming while outlining
the enormous risks but also the enormous
opportunities confronting the world.
In doing so, the IPCC and Mr Gore have
contributed to the unprecedented momentum
on the climate change challenge in 2007.
This now needs to be translated into negotiations
on a decisive, post 2012 emissions reduction
agreement, when governments gather in December
in Bali for the UN climate convention meeting.
Established in the late 1980s by UNEP and
the World Meteorological Organisation of
the UN, the IPCC and its more than 2,000
scientists and experts has grappled with
the science, the likely impacts of climate
change and the economics.
2007 has seen the publication of the IPCC's
fourth assessment report.
The IPCC, under the leadership of its chair
Dr Rajendra Pachauri, has put a full stop
behind the science-climate change is happening.
It has also outlined the impacts, from
the melting of glaciers in the Himalayas
to more frequent and devastating floods
in New York to Bangladesh-impacts, not in
some far away future but in the life-time
of people reading and hearing the announcement
of the Peace Prize Committee.
The IPCC has also calculated the price
of peace and stability on this planet-perhaps
0.1 per cent of global GDP a year for 30
years for combating climate change and avoiding
instability, rising tensions and conflict.
The IPCC, in validating the climate science,
represents one of the most important contributions
the UN has made in its history to humanity
and its current and future choices.
UNEP has also recognized the importance
of Mr Gore's contributions to environmental
stability with our own more modest accolade.
This year Mr Gore was named a UNEP Champions
of the Earth for "making environmental
protection a pillar of his public service
and for educating the world on the dangers
posed by rising greenhouse gas emissions".
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
