Barack Obama and Al Gore to discuss climate change

US President-Elect Barack Obama will meet Nobel laureate and former Vice President Al Gore in Chicago on Tuesday to discuss energy and climate change, his office said.

Last Updated: 7:55AM GMT 09 Dec 2008

Mr Gore, who ran for president in 2000 against George W Bush and lost, will meet Mr Obama and Vice President-elect Joe Biden to discuss how energy and climate policies "can stimulate the economy and create jobs."
Mr Obama is in the process of narrowing down picks for top energy and environment cabinet posts and has signalled that both will be major policy priorities for his administration.
Gore has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate "tsar" or any cabinet post.
But Mr Gore, who starred in the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth and won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to combat rising temperatures and boost awareness of climate change, will likely have a lot of suggestions for Mr Obama about how energy policies can help stimulate the economy.
Just two days after Obama won the Nov. 4 election, Mr Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection rolled out a media campaign to push for immediate investments in energy efficiency, renewable power generation like wind and solar technology and the creation of a unified national power grid.
Mr Obama, who takes over from Bush on Jan 20, has made it clear his White House would break from his predecessor on climate change and other environmental policy issues.
During this year's presidential election campaign, he pledged if he were elected he would make Mr Gore a major player on the topic of climate change.
Mr Obama has promised to increase US use of renewable energy sources dramatically and reduce dependence on foreign suppliers of oil.