Mr. Anote Tong
Former President of the Republic of Kiribati
Mr. Tong served as the President of the Republic of Kiribati from 2003 to 2015. Since coming to office as Kiribati's 'Beretitenti' or 'President' Anote Tong - whilst also undertaking the cabinet role of his nation's foreign-minister - has defined a key responsibility of his leadership to be raising within all international fora the circumstances of climate change circumstances that confront his people, their culture and the peoples and cultures of other climate-vulnerable low-lying populations. His special concern has been to not allow the developed nations - whose the elevated levels of consumption have most contributed to anthropomorphic climate change - to escape their responsibility for the damage these green-house gas emissions continue to cause in places like Kiribati - where those who have least contributed to climate change are forced to pay the highest price for its impact.