- Anote Tong
- A Global Leader of Climate Peace
His Excellency Anote Tong, the President of Kiribati, is a global leader whose dedication and passionate leadership helped to bring about a consensus by the international community concerning climate peace.
He has contributed greatly to raising public awareness of international community about the severe impacts of the climate crisis and dedicated himself to addressing the impacts of climate change on Kiribati, which is gradually being submerged due to rising sea-levels caused by climate change. Also, he worked for the rights of climate refugees to ensure that Kiribati’s citizens who are at risk of becoming climate refugees will be able to keep their dignity if they are forced to migrate. Furthermore, he is leading the cause to designate a large part of the Pacific region as an environmentally protected area, while forgoing immediate financial benefits of his country for the climate peace of future generations.
Led the international community to act on climate change
His Excellency Anote Tong, President of Kiribati, actively informed the international community about the climate crisis facing low-lying Pacific small island states due to rising sea levels and led the international community to cooperatively embark on addressing the issue together. Even though immediate assistance and cooperation was needed from the international community to achieve climate peace for the future generations by reducing carbon emissions and adjusting negative developments that threaten the environment, conflicting interests among countries made for a sluggish show of pace.
Thus, Pres. Tong invited world delegates to Kiribati and held the Tarawa Climate Change Conference (TCCC) on November 12, 2010, during which the Ambo Declaration was adopted. The declaration is an 18-point resolution calling upon major economic countries including China and vulnerable nations to address the causes and adverse impacts of climate change by embarking upon immediate and concrete action. This agreement between the nations was presented at the larger international climate change summit, UNFCCC (United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change) COP (Conference of Parties) 16 in Cancun, Mexico, and became the basis for the economically developed countries to support countries such as Kiribati that are vulnerable to climate change.
Led the protection of marine ecosystems by sacrificing
his country’s interests
To protect the ocean from pollution caused by human greed and lack of restrain, Pres. Tong put down his country’s immediate gains to protect the marine ecosystem. He led the world’s largest marine protection and ocean management initiatives by area in the designation of the Phoenix Islands Protected Area and the Pacific Oceanscape Network Initiative among others and is leading the effort to conserve the Pacific Rim as a resource repository for future generations and a basis for peace.
Pres. Tong’s efforts to conserve the Pacific Rim began with giving up Kiribati’s realistic profits. In 2006, he worked with Conservation International (CI) and New England Aquarium to create the Phoenix Islands Protected Area (PIPA), encompassing some of the most pristine and coral-rich waters on the planet. Upon its full legal establishment in 2008, PIPA was expanded to include more than 400,000km² of ocean prohibiting fishing and other exploitation, making it the world’s largest marine protected area at the time. Two years later, PIPA was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The area’s rich biodiversity includes an abundance of healthy corals, big sharks, groupers, tuna, giant clams and other marine animals that have been depleted in much of the rest of the world. The Phoenix Islands was a major source of revenue for the people of Kiribati with its beautiful environment and rich species of fish. Therefore, prohibiting fishing activities and conserving the area also meant a significant negative impact on Kiribati’s economy. Despite this, Pres. Tong passed a law prohibiting all commercial fishing within the Phoenix Islands Protected Area explaining that, “These efforts are a significant contribution to the world community in the hope that they would also act.”
Going further, Pres. Tong conceived the Pacific Oceanscape framework, an unprecedented effort among 23 Pacific island nations to collaboratively and sustainably protect, manage, and sustain nearly 40 million km² of ocean. The Pacific Oceanscape concept was introduced to the Pacific Islands Forum in 2009. The Framework for the cooperative stewardship of their combined ocean territories was presented a year later, receiving unanimous endorsement by the heads of state and governments of 15 participating nations. Together, the nations of the Pacific Oceanscape have responsibility for some 10% of the world’s ocean surface, an area four times the size of the United States.
.jpg)
Pres. Tong has devoted a significant amount of his energy into defending the human rights of his citizens and contributed greatly towards building awareness among the international community on the protection of human rights for climate refugees.
He is establishing a systematic migration policy so that his country’s citizens, who will be forced to leave Kiribati within the next 30 years due to rising sea levels submerging their country, can migrate with their dignity intact. He has worked diligently to secure funds to buy land for the resettlement and purchased 24.28 million m² of land in Fiji and is also running the migration with dignity vocational education program so that they can be received as migrants who can add value to the work-force with competitiveness and marketability rather than refugees. Even as hope seemed to diminish for Kiribati’s citizens faced with the possibility of losing their homes due to climate change, Pres. Tong’s warm love for humanity shone brightly as he strove to safeguard human dignity through various vocational and language training programs.
These efforts by Pres. Tong contributed to urging the international community for greater cooperation to protect the human rights of climate refugees and address the issue of climate induced migration.
Climate change affects all of us in varying degrees of severity, but for my people and all those living in low-lying atoll islands, we are at the front line of this global calamity, with the very real possibility that our islands, our livelihoods, our homes, our identity as a people and as a culture may indeed cease to exist well within this century.
As leaders, we all have a duty to protect and safeguard those people for whom we are responsible. As parents and grandparents, it is only natural, and instinctive that we would do so with our lives if necessary, for those who rely on us for their security and I do believe it is the moral obligation of all humanity to ensure that all future generations be guaranteed a safe and secure future.
Acceptance Speech
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, our gracious host, Dr. Il-Sik Hong, the Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Korea, together with distinguished excellencies and delegates who are present here this morning, president and members of the Universal Peace Federation, distinguished members of the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee, my colleague and co-recipient of the award, Dr. Modadugu Gupta, and of course my wife, who is here to join me on this occasion, friends, ladies and gentlemen, as is customary in my tradition, allow me to share with you our Kiribati traditional blessings ‘Kam na bane ni Mauri’ meaning ‘May you all be blessed.’
I wish to begin by taking a moment to pay very special tribute to the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon and to Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon for their life-long mission and work, underpinned by the ultimate goal of achieving global peace for all.
Indeed had the global community embraced these visions of promoting reconciliation, coexistence and cooperation, the world would certainly be a much better place and a more peaceful place today.
I also wish to congratulate Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon together with the Chairman and the members of the Committee for this inaugural Sunhak Peace Prize Award Ceremony, an initiative of immense international significance in order to continue Rev. Moon's legacy of "One family under God." For my part, I am truly honored to be a co-recipient of this inaugural award, the Sunhak Peace Prize for 2015.
The last twelve years have been filled with a lot of challenges, starting from when my people elected me in 2003 to guide them towards a safe, secure and prosperous future.
Upon accepting that honor, I also accepted the responsibility that came with it, one of which is to ensure that their voices, their issues would be heard, especially within the international arena.
In receiving this most prestigious award, it is indeed my fervent hope that it will lend greater force to the urgency of the message which I have over the years been trying to communicate to the global community about this existential threat posted by climate change to the survival of future generations of my people and those in similar situations.
Climate change affects all of us in varying degrees of severity, but for my people and all those living in low-lying atoll islands, we are at the front line of this global calamity, with the very real possibility that our islands, our livelihoods, our homes, our identity as a people and as a culture may indeed cease to exist well within this century.
As leaders, we all have a duty to protect and safeguard those people for whom we are responsible. As parents and grandparents, it is only natural, and instinctive that we would do so with our lives if necessary, for those who rely on us for their security and I do believe it is the moral obligation of all humanity to ensure that all future generations be guaranteed a safe and secure future.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is against this background that I honour and acknowledge the most notable contribution of my fellow awardee Dr. Gupta, whose lifelong work will forever remain an inherent feature of the ongoing work on global food security.
It is an honour to be considered alongside a worthy fellow awardee, such as Dr. Gupta.
Let me also take this opportunity to acknowledge the one person who has supported and tolerated me throughout the years especially in those dire moments of frustration and despair when I felt a deep sense of futility that no one was listening to me.
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to acknowledge my wife, Meme.
This award is as much for her as for all our dozen or so grandchildren, as well as those grandchildren whose voice we have tried to represent over the years.
For their sake, let us do what is right for them. In closing, let me share with you all our traditional blessings of “Te Mauri," "Te Raoi," and "Te Tabomoa," meaning health, peace, and prosperity be upon us all.
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.
Remark Upon Announcement
“We have and will continue to protect and preserve this Earth, our one and only home.”
It is indeed an honour that I accept with the greatest humility this award on behalf of our future generations and the people of Kiribati, for it is on their behalf that I have waged this campaign to ensure a secure and safe future for our children, our grandchildren and their children.
This award from an organization outside the formal authority of the United Nations (UN) sends a very positive signal that there are those in this global community who are as equally committed to finding a solution to a globally destabilizing threat such as climate change.
It has not been a journey without challenges. I remember the time when I used to talk about climate change and being faced with the challenge of not being taken seriously and at times having to justify my concerns against scientific and expert opinions skeptical about climate change. However, more recently, science and the world at large are coming together with the underlying message that climate change is a reality and that there are no other options but to work together as a global community to address this calamity. It has indeed been very gratifying to witness such a momentous and positive change with particular credit to the strong stewardship of my fellow leaders.
Kiribati, is but a small nation, nevertheless, we are as much part of the global community as any other nation and we have and will continue to protect and preserve this Earth, our one and only home. This award complements and enhances the voice of my people and those at the frontline of climate change with the underlying message that the fate of small island states captures the essence of what global warming might mean at its most severe. The urgency now is in translating such global support to tangible benefits on the ground into action.
Again, I am very humbled and honoured to have been considered as one of the first recipients of the award particularly with a very worthy fellow awardee, Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta, whose work will go a long way towards strengthening global food security for all humanity. It is my sincere hope that this award will signal a path towards greater global peace and security for all.
June 8, 2015
Anote Tong
.jpg)
