Posted on: October 15, 2009
The Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 has gone in favour of President Barack Obama of the United States. The citation for the award states that President Obama has been awarded the prize “for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.” Several comments by people from diverse regions in the world and from varying backgrounds have already been made on the significance and merit of this year’s award. Some have also been negative and critical on this choice. The citation further states that President Obama has created a new climate in international politics and that multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position. This indeed is true, and on September 22nd President Obama himself spoke at the United Nations when the UN Secretary General had convened an extremely useful meeting on climate change with several world leaders in attendance. I had the privilege of addressing the same audience immediately after the speech of the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon and just before President Obama. As I left the podium and President Obama was getting ready to walk in I greeted him briefly and asked for 10 minutes of his time, so that, I thought, I may convince him on the need for US leadership in tackling the challenge of climate change, a requirement that he himself has stressed on several occasions. I hope I will be granted this privilege, hopefully before Copenhagen.
The Nobel Peace Prize, particularly on this occasion, is more about expectations and hope than actual achievement. Mr Obama himself has called the award as a “call for action” rather than for anything that he has already accomplished. Having stood before the distinguished audience in Oslo alongside Mr. Al Gore in December 2007 on behalf of the IPCC I have experienced the enormous weight of responsibility that this award carries. Not only does the Nobel Prize result in demands from a large number of organizations, institutions and individuals for the time and views of the winners of the award, but it also places a huge burden of expectations that go with its dignity and uniqueness. As Chair of the IPCC, I have felt this acutely on behalf of my organization, and I can imagine what President Obama as an individual would be feeling on this occasion. He would now be under enormous pressure to perform if not for reasons of deep conviction, which in his case are so evident, but also because the world now expects him in essence to justify through results achieved what the award of the Nobel Peace Prize demands.
There is one area in which I hope he would be able to make a quick beginning, because in other areas of tension and conflict, there is a limit to how much he may be able to achieve, whether it be the continuing crisis in the Middle East or the threat of nuclear arms being developed in Iran. I am referring to US action in the field of climate change. As I stated in my speech at the UN, the impacts of climate change have the potential of leading to conflict and the degeneration of several societies into failed states, which could disrupt peace and stability across the world. As winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, President Obama with his deep insights and outstanding intellect must surely see the enormity of the problem that the world is facing and the dangers inherent in global inaction on climate change. The President has no doubt taken some steps through executive action to bring about restrictions in emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) from automobiles, for instance, but there is much more that he could and must do. The introduction of the bill entitled “Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act’ by Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer would undoubtedly face serious challenges in passage. This would require an enormous effort by the President himself and to that extent, perhaps, he must concentrate his efforts on this single achievement rather than several others, which no doubt are urgent, but do not face a deadline such as the Copenhagen Conference of the Parties scheduled for December 2009. If there is any consonance between the award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to the IPCC and Mr. Al Gore and the award this year to President Obama, then the US President must act decisively in establishing US leadership in the field of climate change. Action to prevent a large range of serious impacts of climate change would clearly qualify for urgency of action and adequacy of measures to be implemented. That would also fully justify the award of the prize to Mr. Obama.
