OSLO—Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N. climate panel won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday for helping galvanise international action against global warming before it "moves beyond man's control".
Political opponents saw the award as a snub to President George W. Bush who has doubted the science of global warming and rejected caps on emissions of gases believed to cause it, but the White House said it was happy for the winners and praised their work.
Gore, who lost narrowly to Bush in the 2000 presidential election and who some hope will run again in 2008, and the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) were chosen to share the $1.5 million prize.
The committee awarded the prize from a near record field of 181 candidates for their efforts to draw attention to mankind's impact on the climate and measures needed to address it.
"Action is necessary now, before climate change moves beyond man's control," the committee said.
It warned that climate change—linked to droughts, floods and rising seas—could threaten living conditions across the world, prompt mass migrations and increase the risk of wars.
"We wish to put world climate on the agenda in connection with peace," committee chairman Ole Danbolt Mjoes said.
Since leaving office in 2001, Gore has lectured extensively on the threat of global warming and last year starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" to warn of the dangers and urge action against it.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said. "The IPCC has created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming."
The committee said the case for action to stop global warming has been made convincingly by science.
"Whereas in the 1980s global warming seemed to be merely an interesting hypothesis, the 1990s produced firmer evidence in its support. "In the last few years, the connections have become even clearer and the consequences still more apparent."
The debate on global warming has focused partly on the certainty of the science, and some sceptics say that observed climate changes are within the range of natural variations.
Pressure for Bali Deal
The award was seen raising pressure on the world to agree a new deal to combat global warming at a U.N. climate conference in Bali, Indonesia in December. Gore and the IPCC will collect their prize in Oslo on Dec. 10, while it is under way.
Congratulations poured in from world leaders, including U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
But Gore's critics said the award was wrong.
"Al Gore doesn't understand the science behind climate change or he deliberately misrepresents it," said Joseph Bast, whose Chicago-based Heartland Institute has run newspaper ads challenging Gore to debates on global warming.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus was surprised at the award because the relationship between Gore's work and world peace was "unclear and indistinct", his spokesman said.
It was the second Nobel peace prize for a leading U.S. Democrat during the presidency of Republican Bush, who rejected the 1997 Kyoto Protocol setting limits on industrial nations' greenhouse gas emissions—a pact supported by Gore.
The 2002 prize went to former President Jimmy Carter, which the Nobel committee head at the time called a "kick in the legs" to the U.S. administration over preparations to invade Iraq.
The award "shines a bright light on the most inconvenient truth of all—the selection of George Bush as president has endangered the peace and prosperity of the entire planet," said Democrat John Edwards, a 2008 White House contender.
Mjoes said the peace prize, the first to go to climate campaigners, was not meant as criticism of Bush.
'Planetary Emergency'
Gore, 59, said he was deeply honoured and would donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection.
"We face a true planetary emergency," Gore said in a statement. "It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level."
IPCC chairman Rajendra Pachauri said in New Delhi he was overwhelmed and privileged to share the prize with Gore. "This recognition ... thrusts a new responsibility on our shoulders. We have to do more and we have many more miles to go."
The IPCC groups 2,500 researchers from more than 130 nations and issued reports this year blaming human activities for climate change ranging from more heat waves to floods. It was set up in 1988 by the United Nations to help guide governments.
Some have speculated that Gore could use what many consider the world's greatest accolade as a springboard for a new bid for the White House. He has shown no sign of interest but Monica Friedlander of the group www.draftgore.com pushing Gore to run said it would "be very difficult for him to say 'No'."
The scope of the prize established by the 1895 will of Swedish philanthropist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel has expanded from its roots in peacemaking and disarmament to human rights, the fight against poverty and work for the environment.
