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16^th March 2007 (Source: Department of Trade and Industry )

Climate change campaigner and former US Vice President, Al Gore, will tonight present his award-winning 'An Inconvenient Truth' lecture, at the 14th annual Zuckerman Lecture, part of National Science and Engineering Week.

Science and Innovation Minister Malcolm Wicks and the Government's Chief Scientist Sir David King will also attend the invitation-only lecture at the Royal Society.

Malcolm Wicks said:

"I recently visited Antarctica and have seen the dramatic effects of climate change there first-hand. As a Government, we are putting climate change at the top of the agenda, as the draft Climate Change Bill demonstrates, but it's a problem for the whole world to tackle.

"We face an extraordinary global challenge with climate change. Science offers us the opportunity to find solutions to some of the most difficult and important challenges that face our society and indeed the world. Al Gore is doing fantastic work to raise awareness of this vitally important global problem."

Sir David King said:

"I've worked with Al Gore and seen him speak many times. Every time, it is equally inspiring. That's why when I was considering a speaker to invite from the international scientific community to give this year's lecture on an issue of global importance, only one name sprang to my mind.

"What many people may not realise is that Al Gore isn't new to environmentalism. He wrote the best-seller Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit in 1992 and led the Clinton-Gore Administration's efforts to protect the environment in a way that also strengthened the economy.

"This view is one that is shared here in the UK, where we are, in my view, leading the world in measures to tackle climate change and reduce our emissions, while maintaining economic growth."

Notes to Editors

1. Each year an internationally eminent figure in the science world is invited to address the British scientific community at the Zuckerman Lecture. The lecture is named after the first Government Chief Scientist, Lord Zuckerman.
2. Lord Zuckerman was one of the most distinguished scientists of the last century and was at the heart of British science for over sixty years.
3. Al Gore was Vice President of the United States of America from 1993 to 2001.
4. The draft Climate Change Bill, among other measures, makes challenging carbon dioxide reductions targets for 2020 and 2050 legally binding, introduces a system of 'carbon budgeting' and creates a new independent body to advise on the setting of carbon budgets and to report on progress.
5. National Science and Engineering Week runs from 9 to 18 March 2007. The week is funded by the DTI, and co-ordinated by the British Association for the Advancement of Science in partnership with the Engineering and Technology Board. For more information visit http://www.the-ba.net.

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