THE environmental campaigner Al Gore is being tipped as a favourite to win the Nobel peace prize in Oslo this Friday in a controversial move that could place saving the planet above saving people from war and conflict.

Gore, a former American vice-president and failed presidential candidate, has reinvented himself as the “Goracle” with a rock star following after presenting last year’s Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth, about the dangers of climate change.

He was nominated for the Nobel prize jointly with Sheila Watt-Cloutier, a Canadian Inuit activist who has campaigned about the effect of climate change on Arctic peoples.

“A prerequisite for winning the Nobel peace prize is making a difference and Al Gore has made a difference,” said Boerge Brende, a former Norwegian environment minister who nominated Gore and Watt-Cloutier.

“I think they are likely winners this year,” said Stein Toennesson, director of Oslo’s International Peace Research Institute. The winner will receive $1.5m (£750,000) in prize money.

Gore spent last year assessing whether he ought to run for the White House in 2008, teasing his supporters by saying, “I haven’t completely ruled it out”, and prompting observers to keep a close eye on his girth for signs that he was slimming for a presidential bid.

Some commentators in America, including the British writer Christopher Hitchens, believe he could use a Nobel win to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination.

“Can he stand to watch another Clinton walk away with a nomination that could have been, or could still be, his?” Hitchens asked. Close supporters believe the answer is yes. Gore appears to have concluded that the Democrats are satisfied with their candidates.

Global temperatures will rise 2.5C within the next century even if the world hits its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, according to the scientist leading research into the issue.

Consequences could include widespread starvation, as farm yields fall 50% in parts of Africa, water shortages for 300m and the destruction of 20-30% of species. If targets are missed the rise could reach 4C.

Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, issued his warning in London last week.

“We have come to the conclusion that global warming is unequivocal,” he said. “What is particularly worrying is that it is accelerating.”

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