But inside or outside government, Gore will continue to shape how the public and policy-makers think about climate change. Gore first turned his attention to the issue in the late 1980s, learning about the science of greenhouse gases and traveling the world to see the early effects of a changing climate. He was a key figure in some of the earliest congressional work on climate change, and as vice president attempted to lead the country on limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

The former vice president’s work on climate change also won him a Nobel Peace Prize in October 2007, which he shared with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the intergovernmental scientific body established by the United Nations.