Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg may just win the Nobel Peace Prize this year but all of it is a good-ol' game of speculation as of now. Henrik Urdal, the Director of the Peace Research Institute in Oslo, said that a Peace Prize for Thunberg in such an atmosphere would electrify the world. However, he believes the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change would be a more worthy winner of the prize. The Nobel Peace Prize list will be announced on October 8.
The annual Nobel Peace Prize shines the brightest of lights on the person or group thought to have done most to promote peace. But guessing who it will be is just a shot in the dark — the super-secretive Norwegian Nobel Committee never drops any hints our way. In the past decade, winners have included diplomats, doctors, dissidents and presidents.
Who were the other candidates considered for the Peace Prize? We can't know for sure if the panel keeps their ruminations in a vault for the next 50 years. A week of Nobel Prizes kicks off on October 4 with the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Physics is on October 5, Chemistry on October 6, Literature on October 7 and Economics on October 11.
Urdal says the pandemic is an important backdrop to this year's prize. It wouldn’t be unfair to guess that the World Health Organization is likely to win the 2021 prize for its work during the pandemic. Urdal has no plans to make COVAX, the United Nations-sponsored vaccine equity organisation, his top pick. Rollout of COVID-19 jabs to poor countries has been too slow, he said.
The Nobel-tipster added that "the problems of public disinformation” might be recognised by the panel. He picks Reporters Without Borders as his favorite, saying the committee could recognise an organisation “focused on the importance of independent reporting and press freedom in the face of the dire risks.” As much as the winner always makes the headlines, the delayed nomination process means the judging panel is often sifting through candidates from yesterday's news.
But Rupert Adams at William Hill, one of Britain's biggest bookies, jokes that picking a winner is “the world's most difficult job,” adding he “can't think of a harder market to price.”
With inputs from Associated Press
Edited by Eshan Kalyanikar
