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 Also among the candidates for the accolade were Greta Thunberg, Pope
Francis, the Myanmar National Unity Government formed by opponents
of last year's coup and Tuvalu's foreign minister Simon Kofe,
last-minute announcements showed.
Thousands of people, from members of parliaments worldwide to former
winners, are eligible to propose candidates.
Norwegian lawmakers have nominated an eventual Peace laureate every
year since 2014 - with the exception of 2019 - including one of the
two laureates last year, Maria Ressa.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee, which decides who wins the award,
does not comment on nominations, keeping secret for 50 years the
names of nominators and unsuccessful nominees.
However, some nominators like Norwegian lawmakers choose to reveal
their picks.
NATURAL WORLD
Attenborough, 95, is best known for his landmark television series
illustrating the natural world, including "Life on Earth" and "The
Blue Planet".
He was nominated jointly with the Intergovernmental Science-Policy
Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), which
assesses the state of biodiversity worldwide for policymakers.
They were put forward for "their efforts to inform about, and
protect, Earth's natural diversity, a prerequisite for sustainable
and peaceful societies," said nominator Une Bastholm, the leader of
the Norwegian Green Party.
Another Green Party representative nominated Sweden's Greta
Thunberg, whose rise from teen activist to global climate leader
https://news.trust.org/item/
20190819233721-jaa90 has made her a frequent Nobel nominee in recent
years, along with the Fridays For Future movement she started.
Pope Francis was nominated for his efforts to help solve the climate
crisis
https://www.reuters.com/business/
environment/
world-should-respond-climate-change-if-hit-by-global-war-pope-tells-cop26-2021-11-02
as well as his work towards peace and reconciliation, by Dag Inge
Ulstein, a former minister of international development.
Tuvalu's foreign minister Simon Kofe was nominated by the leader of
Norway's Liberal Party, Guri Melby, for his work in highlighting
climate change issues
https://www.reuters.com/business/
cop/tuvalu-minister-stands-sea-film-cop26-speech-show-climate-change-2021-11-08.
Kofe filmed a speech to last year's COP26 climate conference
standing knee-deep in seawater.
[to top of second column] |
 Environmentalists have won the Nobel Peace Prize
in the past, including Kenyan activist Wangari
Maathai, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change and former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore.
Still, "there is no scientific consensus on
climate change as an important driver of violent
combat", said Henrik Urdal, director of the
Peace Research Institute Oslo, cautioning
against a "too simplistic connection between the
two".
PANDEMIC
The coronavirus pandemic has been front and
centre of people's concerns over the past two
years and this year the international body
tasked with fighting it, the WHO, has again been
nominated.
"I think the WHO is likely to be discussed in
the Committee for this year's prize," said Urdal.
The Myanmar National Unity Government, a shadow
government formed last year by opponents of
military rule after civilian leader and former
peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi was
detained in a coup, was also named as a
candidate.
Exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana
Tsikhanouskaya was nominated for the second year
running for her "brave, tireless and peaceful
work" for democracy and freedom in her home
country, said parliamentarian Haarek Elvenes.
Other nominees revealed by Norwegian lawmakers
are jailed Russian dissident Alexei Navalny, the
International Criminal Court in the Hague,
WikiLeaks and Chelsea Manning, NATO, aid
organisation CARE, Iranian human rights activist
Masih Alinejad, and the Arctic Council, an
intergovernmental forum for cooperation for
Arctic nations, according to a Reuters survey of
Norwegian lawmakers.
Nominations, which closed on Monday, do not
imply an endorsement from the Nobel committee.
The 2021 laureate will be announced in October.
For a graphic of Nobel laureates, click here:
http://tmsnrt.rs/2y6ATVW
(Editing by Gwladys Fouche, Toby Chopra and Alex
Richardson)
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