Bill McKibbenNCSE offers its belated congratulations to Bill McKibben on winning the Sophie Prize, "established to inspire people working towards a sustainable future," for 2013, in recognition of his efforts to combat climate change. According to a press release dated May 27, 2013,
"This planet desperately needs a global mobilizer for change. Fighting immensely powerful interests[,] McKibben has shown that mobilizing for change is possible. This brings hope," the Sophie Prize jury writes in the jury statement. In the past few years McKibben has been animating and mobilizing a global movement based on the conviction that if we are to stay below [2 degrees Celsius; 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit] of warming, we can emit [no more] than 565 more gigatons of carbon dioxide. Fossil fuel corporations have more than five times that amount in coal, oil[,] and gas reserves.
McKibben will receive the award, along with $100,000, in Oslo, Norway, on October 28, 2013. The founder and chair of the board of the international climate change campaign 350.org, McKibben is a member of NCSE's Advisory Council.