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Al Gore and Climate Panel awarded Nobel Peace prize 2007

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Friday, October 12, 2007

Al Gore

The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize was awarded today to former U.S. Vice President Albert Arnold Gore Jr. and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The Nobel committee cited "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" as the reasons for awarding the prize.

The Nobel Peace Prize

The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish and Norwegian: Nobels fredspris) is the name of one of five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel. The other prizes are given out in Sweden, in different categories, but the Peace prize is given out by the Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo, Norway. Last year, Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Peace Prize is awarded annually in Oslo, the capital of Norway. The actual prize always is presented on the 10th of December, the anniversary of the death of Nobel. The Norwegian king is in attendance. For the past decade, the Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony at the Oslo City Hall has been followed the next day by the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, which is broadcast to over 150 countries and more than 450 million households around the world. The Concert has received worldwide fame and the participation of top celebrity hosts and performers.

By the provisions of Nobel's will, the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses."

Norwegian Nobel Committee

The Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway.

The Committee's five members are entrusted with researching and adjudicating the Prize as well as awarding it. Although appointed by the Norwegian Parliament (Stortinget), they are independent and answer to no legislative authority. Members of the Norwegian government are not permitted to sit on the Committee. Nominations for the Prize may be made by a broad array of qualified individuals, including former recipients, members of national assemblies and congresses, university professors (in certain disciplines), international judges, and special advisors to the Prize Committee.

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