Vale man's key role in Nobel Peace Prize

8:47am Thursday 1st May 2008

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A PERSHORE scientist was the toast of the Vale this week as it emerged he had played a key role in winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

John Gale was an important contributing author to the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change submission which shared the 2007 prize with former US Vice President Al Gore.

Now his achievement has been recognised and he has received a facsimile copy of the Peace Prize acknowledging his contribution.

Wife Yvonne and daughter Carly said they were "delighted and proud" but John said: "It was a bit of a shock. A lot of letters were going around when the prize was awarded in October but I heard nothing more until this arrived."

The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised both the Geneva-based IPCC and Mr Gore - whose film about the consequences of climate change scooped two Oscars - "for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change".

The award was regarded as a validation for the IPCC which, in its early days, was vilified by those who disputed the scientific case for a human tole in climate change.

The Indian climatologist who heads the panel, Rajendra K Pachauri, said that science had won over scepticism.

John said: "A lot of authors contributed to our work and obviously I am pleased and proud to be one of them."

A former pupil of Pershore High School, John went on to continue his studies at Evesham College where he did an OND in science.

He joined British Coal at their research facility at Stoke Orchard and continued his studies, gaining an HNC at Gloucester and then doing his degree at the University of Bristol.

John remained with British Coal until it was privatised and then worked for various firms of consultants around the world, including India and China, specialising in clean coal technology.

He joined his present employers, the IEA Greenhouse Gas Research and Development Programme in Cheltenham in order to continue his work on finding ways of curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

The International Energy Agency, which is based in Paris, was formed by Western governments in 1974 as a foil to the then volatile Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and to loosed its virtual stangelhold on the world's oil markets.

John's research also contributed to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and on the south coast of England he began work on the E.ON project.

Then, with a few others, he was seconded to the UN's IPCC. "I got involved in writing a special report on CO2 capture and storage, " he said. His paper was released two years ago and it was this which contributed to the winning of the Nobel Prize.

"It was also accepted as an option in the Kyoto Protocol," he said.

In addition to his research work, John is also editor of The International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, providing a focal point for research worldwide.

For relaxation he enjoys walking his dogs and pottering around in the garden.