Over three days in September, Mr Gore launched a sustainability fund, spoke at three forums and dabbled ever so slightly in Australian politics.

In Melbourne and Sydney, Mr Gore presented his speech Thinking Green – Economic Strategy for the 21st Century. In both cities the event was attended by a high level audience of senior business leaders and politicians with direct interest in the renewable energy sector and provided an excellent opportunity to hear from one of the most powerful champions of environmental awareness in the world today.

Revealing his frustration with Australian and United States political leadership on climate change, Mr Gore referred to the two countries as the Bonnie and Clyde of the current environmental crisis.

With Australia and the United States the only two countries left to ratify the Kyoto protocol, Mr Gore all but backed the ALP’s environmental policies at a press conference with Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd in Sydney.

“There is a clear and stark contrast difference in the positions of the two candidates,” he said. “One supports ratification of the world treaty to solve the climate crisis and one opposes it.

“Should Australia change course and ratify Kyoto it would have an electrifying impact globally and especially in my country, the US, as an ally.”

Mr Rudd has said that ratifying the Kyoto protocol would be one of the first acts and incoming Labour Party would do. “We want to be part of the global solution, not just part of the global problem on climate change,” Mr Rudd said.

Mr Gore was also the keynote speaker at the Gala dinner of international professional services company GHD’s sustainability forum in Melbourne. The forum, titled Our Planet – Leaving a Legacy, examined sustainability through the prism of biodiversity, transportation, renewable energy resources, water and urban development.

Alongside Mr Gore, speakers at the forum included scientist and Australian of the year Tim Flannery who spoke about diversity in his presentation on ‘Reducing the pressure on our ecosystems’. Shadow Minister for Climate change, Environment and Heritage, Peter Garrett also spoke about what the future holds for low emission energy sources.

While in Australia, Mr Gore launched the Generation Global Sustainability fund. The fund is the creation of Generation Investment Management, a United States-based company established in 2004 by Mr Gore and former global CEO of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood.

The fund is based on the belief that sustainable investing is fundamentally different to ethical or socially responsible investing and that sustainability factors will drive a company’s share price over the long-term.

In Sydney, Mr Gore launched the FEX Sustainability and Cleantech Investment Market. The FEX-SIM is a purpose-built Australasian equity market operating as a board and under the Australian Market Licence of the National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX).

FEX Chairman and CEO Brian Price said FEX-SIM would attract the interest not only of ethically and ecologically oriented investment funds, but also organisations and individuals looking for yield or profit in a way that also contributes to global sustainability.

Mr Gore was awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize after his visit. Mr Gore shares the prize with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for their 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 Norwegian Nobel Committee said Mr Gore “Is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted.

“Action is necessary now,” they said, “before climate change moves beyond man’s control.”