Gore to donate prize money to environmental body

Al Gore said today that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.

Al Gore is to donate his share of the Nobel Prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection.

It is a bipartisan non-profit organisation that is devoted to changing public opinion around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

The former US vice president shares the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, it was announced today.

He said today that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.

“We face a true planetary emergency. … It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity,” he said. “It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.”

Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out President Bush’s administration for criticism.

But, in a nod to the 2008 elections, he said: “I am very much in support for all who support changes.”

“Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president,” Mjoes said. “Many did not listen … but he carried on.”

The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former US President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.