The Nobel Peace Price for 2007 was jointly awarded to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore.
The Nobel Peace Price for 2007 was jointly awarded to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Al Gore. The Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the prize 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.”
David Warrilow, Defra's Head of Climate, Energy and Ozone: Science and Analysis, has been involved with the IPCC since 1990. He explained that Defra's role is to lead on the IPCC for the UK. This means agreeing the work programme of the IPCC, supporting UK scientists who are involved in the preparation of IPCC reports, and approving the summaries for policymakers of these reports, which are used by governments around the world.
In addition, the UK has also provided two working group co-chairs for the IPCC - Sir John Houghton (1988- 2002) and Professor Martin Parry who is currently the co-chair of the Impacts and Adaptation Working Group. Defra provides financial support to the co-chairs and their supporting secretariats. As such the UK has provided underpinning funding for almost one-third of the major scientific reports produced by the IPCC, which the Nobel committee believes have “created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming.”
A number of Defra staff are involved in supporting the IPCC to develop the latest reports, including David Warrilow, Jim Penman, Steve Cornelius, James Davey, Hannah Ryder, Adrian Butt, Matt Coyne, Cinzia Losenno and Chris Sear. Our own Chief Scientific Adviser, Robert Watson, was the IPCC Chairman from 1997 - 2002.
Acknowledging their efforts, Hilary Benn said:
“Since my arrival in the Department, I've been enormously impressed by the quality of the science and evidence base driving the climate change agenda. I know that many of you have been working for years on the IPCC and have been one of the major driving forces behind the impact it has had around the world. To be part of a Nobel Peace Prize is a privilege rightly reserved for very few. You should all be immensely proud of this achievement on behalf of Defra, HMG and indeed the world.”
