Mercy Corps Congratulates Gore, UN on Prize

Planting seedlings, part of a Mercy Corps program, is one way to reduce erosion in the mountains of northern Afghanistan. Photo: Shirine Pont/Mercy Corps

Mercy Corps congratulates Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on winning the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize.

Mercy Corps was nominated for the prestigious award in February by Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer in recognition for the agency's diverse and creative work in helping individuals to combat disasters, conflicts, chronic poverty and instability throughout the world. Congressman Blumenauer has been a longtime and steadfast supporter of Mercy Corps' work.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee announced today that the 107-year-old prize would this year be shared between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Former Vice President Gore "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.

"Mercy Corps wholeheartedly congratulates Al Gore and the UN's climate change panel for winning the Nobel Peace Prize," said CEO Neal Keny-Guyer. "Their outstanding work to alert people to climate change — a phenomenon that impacts the lives of so many people in the developing world — has been very justly rewarded by this achievement."

Mercy Corps recently launched an initiative to assess the impact of climate change in communities in which we already work. Through a partnership with the University of Edinburgh, we're identifying ways vulnerable populations in certain areas — including Niger, Mongolia and Indonesia — can both adapt to climate change and take advantage of job growth in new, climate-friendly economic sectors.

Mercy Corps also recently measured its global carbon footprint as part of its commitment to making its operations carbon neutral.

"It was a great honor for Mercy Corps to be nominated for the world's premier award for humanitarian work, and we are delighted that the impact of our work was recognized," Keny-Guyer added.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be presented in Oslo on December 10.