Nobel Prize addresses "most dangerous of all environmental problems," Holdren says

October 12, 2007

In response to the announcement today that the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize goes to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Al Gore, John P. Holdren, director of the Belfer Center’s Science, Technology, and Public Policy program, comments:

“With this award the Nobel committee is emphasizing that peace, prosperity, and the fate of the environment are intertwined.  It's also emphasizing that the disruption of global climate by human activities is the most dangerous of all environmental problems and the one that most threatens peace and prosperity.  And it is recognizing, correctly, that the IPCC has done more than any other organization -- and Al Gore more than any other individual -- to bring the reality and the urgency of this danger to the attention of the world.”

The Nobel announcement states that the IPCC and Gore were selected "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."

Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard Environmental Economics Program and member of the Belfer Center’s Board of Directors, was a Lead Author from the U.S. to both the Second (1995-96) and Third (2001)Assessment Reports of the IPCC.  Kelly Sims Gallagher, director of the Center’s Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group, was a formal reviewer for the most recent IPCC report (2007).

John Holdren served as an advisor to then Vice President Al Gore on climate change science, policy, and relevant technologies, as a member of the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology through both Clinton terms. He also was one of the scientists who advised Gore on the slide slow that gradually evolved into his award-winning film “An Inconvenient Truth.” Holdren notes that it was Gore’s “ingenuity, understanding, conviction, organization, communication skill, and relentless determination to make a difference that earned him this prize.