OSLO/NEW DELHI: Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change jointly won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for their efforts to spread awareness of man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for fighting it.

Gore, who won an Academy Award earlier this year for his film on global warming, ``An Inconvenient Truth,'' had been widely tipped to win the prize. The win is also likely add further fuel to a burgeoning movement in the United States for Gore to run for president in 2008, which he has so far said he does not plan to do.

Gore called the award meaningful because of his co-winner, calling the IPCC the ``world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis.''

He said that global warming was not a political issue but a worldwide crisis.

``We face a true planetary emergency. ... It is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity,'' he said. ``It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.''

Gore said he planned to donate his share of the prize money to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan nonprofit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.

In its citation, the committed lauded Gore's ``strong commitment, reflected in political activity, lectures, films and books, has strengthened the struggle against climate change. He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.''

Ole Danbolt Mjoes, chairman of the prize committee, said the award should not be seen as singling out the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush for criticism.

But, in a nod to the 2008 elections, he said ``I am very much in support for all who support changes.''

``Al Gore has fought the environment battle even as vice president,'' Mjoes said. ``Many did not listen ... but he carried on.''

The last American to win the prize, or share it, was former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who won it 2002.

In its citation, the committee said that Gore ``has for a long time been one of the world's leading environmentalist politicians'' and cited his awareness at an early stage ``of the climatic challenges the world is facing.

The committee cited the IPCC for its two decades of scientific reports that have ``created an ever-broader informed consensus about the connection between human activities and global warming. Thousands of scientists and officials from over 100 countries have collaborated to achieve greater certainty as to the scale of the warming.''

"a sense of urgency"