Anote Tong, president of Kiribati, is among the most prominent world leaders advocating for greater global action on climate change. He has powerfully highlighted that the emission of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from industrialised nations is endangering the future of Kiribati and other climate-vulnerable nations and cultures. By his own actions he strives to challenge national leaders to assume responsibility for an international response to climate change. We ask the Norwegian Nobel Committee to award President Anote Tong the Nobel Peace Prize for 2015.
Why is this important?
President Tong’s country, the Pacific island nation of Kiribati, is one of the first places to confront sea level rise and other devastating real-life consequences of climate change. President Tong is worthy of the Nobel Peace prize because he plays a significant and constructive role in meeting the challenges of climate change by taking every opportunity to help create a new understanding of global warming in industrialised nations.
President Tong has joined with other leaders of Small Island States to lobby for the United Nations to address Climate Change as a threat to the security of the world’s people. He has shown himself a builder of peace and reconciliation by continually striving to strengthen co-operation between nations and encouraging dialogue at international forums. He promotes protection of the environment as a means of advancing peace and harmony among nations. From the assemblies of the United Nations to meetings of world leaders he has provided an inspirational example of principled non-violent leadership.
After the failure of Copenhagen in 2009, President Tong organized the Tarawa Climate Change Conference which brought together small islands states and large polluting nations to find common agreement, now enshrined in the Ambo Declaration of 2010. In addition, under his leadership Kiribati has designated and is working towards the establishment of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA). It will be among the world’s largest environmentally protected areas. Both the Ambo Declaration and the PIPA demonstrate his leadership in showing that small nations can lead the world in taking effective action on climate change. More recently, President Tong’s leadership in setting up the Coalition of Atoll Nations, bringing the frontline most vulnerable states together, is evidence that President Tong is a catalyst the world needs now in the lead up to the climate conference in Paris in December 2015.
