KEY POINTS:
Former US Vice President Al Gore, announced today as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has stressed the urgency of his work on climate change and said he was getting straight back to work on the issue.
"We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing," Gore told reporters in Palo Alto, appearing in public nearly nine hours after the award was announced in Oslo.
Gore shared the Nobel prize with the UN climate panel for their work helping galvanise international action against global warming.
"It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," Gore said.
"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now."
"I'm going back to work right now. This is just the beginning," Gore added, before leaving the room and taking no questions.
That left unanswered a question on the minds of many in the United States after his Nobel win: would Gore, a Democrat who narrowly lost the 2000 presidential election to George W. Bush, jump in to join a crowded Democratic field of candidates ahead of the November 2008 presidential election.
Gore has made it known he is not interested, although some Democratic activists are campaigning for him to get into the race, and the Nobel award today further fueled their hopes.
Gore has pledged the cash element of his Nobel Peace prize to climate research.
- REUTERS
