Al Gore Warns of Climate Crisis Resistance While Backing Renewable Energy Momentum

Former United States Vice-President Al Gore says he was surprised by the ongoing backlash from the fossil fuel industry and its political allies two decades after the release of his documentary An Inconvenient Truth. Speaking at a New York event marking the 20th anniversary of the film and his climate work, the 78-year-old noted that scientists have been proven correct and have sometimes even understated climate damage. Gore stated that the fossil fuel industry has captured control of too many governments and parts of the United Nations climate science apparatus, pointing to reporting that Saudi oil operatives helped craft high-profile UN climate reports. Released in 2006, An Inconvenient Truth followed Gore's slideshow talk on the climate crisis after his 2000 US presidential election loss. Following the film, Gore started a grassroots movement that trained new activists, growing his Climate Reality Project into a network of 4.5 million people across 196 countries. Gore warned that global heating is causing rapid and frequent disasters, including record heatwaves this summer and a glacier collapse on the Nepal-Tibet border. He cautioned that current temperature rises threaten to breach agreed limits, pushing the world toward tipping points like melting ice sheets and the Amazon turning into a savanna. Comparing the climate fight to the civil rights and women's rights movements, Gore urged perseverance despite despair, expressing strong belief that public opinion is nearing a positive tipping point. Although global temperatures are heading past 2C hotter than pre-industrial averages, the fast rollout of clean energy has made projections of a 4C rise unlikely. Gore noted that clean energy is now routinely cheaper than coal and gas, though developing countries still face hurdles getting funding for renewables and battery projects. He stated that clean energy momentum will soon overtake resistance, leaving the main question as whether the world will act in time to avoid negative tipping points. Gore spoke ahead of a UN climate event hosted by outgoing UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who criticized the ongoing expansion of fossil fuels for driving up costs and leaving countries vulnerable to conflicts. Guterres emphasized that countries can choose a different path by tripling renewable adoption, cutting deforestation, and electrifying economies, calling clean energy the cheapest, fastest, and most secure source of new electricity.