Former US Vice-President Al Gore also won the award, announced in Oslo by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, jointly with the IPCC.

The IPCC, a UN body comprised of about 3,000 atmospheric scientists, oceanographers, ice specialists, economists and other experts, is the world's top scientific authority on global warming and its impact.

The panel has been given the award for its efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change, the Nobel committee said.

The 67-year-old Director General of the environmental organisation Tata Energy Research Institute (TERI) reacted by saying that with the award, the issue of climate change will come to the fore.

"I was not expecting any awards for my efforts. I feel privileged to share it with Al Gore. I am only a symbolic recipient but it is the organisation which has been awarded," Pachauri said.