Al Gore increases awards haul

Man of the hour Al Gore has added to his awards tally after scooping another accolade at a ceremony lauding those who have had a tangible impact with their efforts to protect the environment.


The former Presidential Candidate was among the winners at the edie Awards for Environmental Excellence, held at the Natural History Museum on Tuesday.

The inaugural awards aimed to highlight the vital work being carried out by environmental consultancies in the UK and further afield in arenas such as curbing climate change, increasing recycling and improving water quality.

Mr Gore, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month, was voted by those working in the environment industry as the individual who they felt had made the biggest contribution to global efforts to protect the planet.

Presenting the award for Green Personality of the Year 2007, sponsored by the Enersol Corporation, Lord Lewis Mooney praised the impact of Mr Gore’s work and his film An Inconvenient Truth.

He said: “It is widely observed that there is a groundswell of change in the US. Public opinion is changing fast and that is no mean feat.”

Mr Gore was unable to attend the ceremony to pick up his award, as he was in Germany to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel.

However, Mark Ferguson, co-founder of Gore’s green investment house, Generation Investment Management, was on hand to collect it.

Mr Ferguson said: “He is extremely honoured to receive this award. I spoke to him earlier today and he is very sorry he can’t be here in person.”

He added: “It is incredibly encouraging to see a body of people like ourselves all committed to the subject of the environment.”

Mr Gore beat veteran broadcaster and naturalist David Attenborough, the man who brought us London’s congestion charge, Mayor Ken Livingstone, campaigning journalist George Monbiot, and former Environment Secretary David Miliband to be crowned the environmentalist’s environmentalist.

Kate Martin

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