Nobel prize for climate change work
12 October 2007
The Natural Environment Research Council welcomes the news that the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), along with the environmental campaigner Al Gore.
The Prize was given 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.
Chairman of the IPCC, Dr R K Pachauri, today paid tribute to the scientific community, whose scientists and experts he acknowledged as "the backbone of the IPCC" and "the winners of this award."
The IPCC was established to assess scientific, technical and socio- economic information relevant for the understanding of climate change, its potential impacts and options for adaptation and mitigation. It is currently finalizing its Fourth Assessment Report "Climate Change 2007".
Professor Alan Thorpe, Chief Executive of NERC said, "I am delighted that the IPCC has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The four science assessments on climate change it has carried out have drawn together the huge wealth of scientific evidence that human actions are changing the climate. This award is a tribute to the thousands of scientists and others whose research has produced that evidence. "
Many NERC-funded experts have contributed to the IPCC assessments, either directly or through the research they carry out. Dr Chris Huntingford, a climate modeller at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, is one of a team whose work is cited in the fourth assessment. He said, "I applaud the actions of the Nobel Committee in recognising the excellent work of the IPCC and the wider science community over the last two decades. The IPCC process produces well-balanced and methodical reports, free from the emotion that so often surrounds the issue of climate change. The process has allowed policymakers and politicians access to key scientific information on the connection between human activities and global warming."
Further information
NERC Press Office
Natural Environment Research Council
Polaris House, North Star Avenue
Swindon, SN2 1EU
Tel: 01793 411561
Mob: 07917 557215
Briefing note: 19/07
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