Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore has said he plans to use the honor and recognition of the award as a way to speed up the change in awareness about global warming.

Al Gore: “It truly is a planetary emergency, and we have to respond quickly. There’s an old African proverb that says if you want to go quickly, go alone; if you want to go far, go together. We have to go far, quickly, and that means we have to quickly find a way to change the world’s consciousness about exactly what we’re facing and why we have to work to solve it.”

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised Gore and the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for winning this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon: “This is clearly a recognition of international community, in general, and by Nobel Committee, in particular, the urgency and significance of this global warming phenomenon of the international community. This says there is an unprecedented momentum in the world to take necessary action.”