Fiji nominates president of Kiribati for Nobel Peace Prize

Transcript

Fiji has nominated the president of Kiribati, Anote Tong, as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work around climate change issues.

A letter of support for President Tong was sent to the Tong Nobel Committee, on behalf of Fiji's Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama.

Leilani Momoisea reports.

In September this year, the Kiribati President, Anote Tong addressed the United Nations Summit on Climate Change in New York. He called for stronger leadership from the international community.

ANOTE TONG: We continue to procrastinate. We continue to ignore what the science is telling us and indeed what we are witnessing with our own eyes. We know that in order for us to make meaningful progress in addressing the challenges of climate change there is a need for strong and decisive, global leadership. So we must get away from the 'wait-and-see-who-is-doing-what' style of leadership, for the sake of our children and their children.

A letter of support on behalf of Fiji's Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, calls Mr Tong's commitment in pushing for a stronger international response to climate change as exemplary and deserving of recognition. A spokesperson for the independent Tong Nobel Committee, Phil Glendenning, says the vote of support from Fiji is significant.

PHIL GLENDENNING: President Tong has for many years been an eloquent and articulate voice about the impact of climate change upon all of the world's community and about the need for there to be some decisive action. Because it is the greatest threat that the world faces to peace and security. This endorsement is further evidence that this is a cause that needs support, and needs world recognition.

Anote Tong has earlier paid tribute to Fiji for being the only country to offer his people a haven from rising sea levels. Local media reports Kiribati paid just over eight million US dollars for 6,000 acres of freehold land on the northern island of Vanua Levu. Climate change has compromised food cultivation on the atolls of Kiribati and Mr Tong says the land in Fiji will offer food security for Kiribati in the future. These types of challenges are again empahsised in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change document. It highlights global warming is on track to rise by up to four degrees, with coral reef destruction, and ocean acidification. The head of the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme, David Sheppard, says with the Pacific Ocean making up 98 per cent of the region and only 2 per cent land, the findings are a real concern.

DAVID SHEPPERD: We have four of the five lowest countries and territories on earth; Tuvalu, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Tokelau. And their high above sea level is between two to three metres. So a rise of up to one metre is a real disaster.

Vaka canoes have been sailing across the Pacific on the Mua Voyage to seek commitment to help protect the Pacific Ocean for future generations. On Monday, the vaka will sail into Sydney Harbour for the opening of the World Parks Congress, with a number of Pacific leaders on board, including Anote Tong. President Tong says he wants to see tangible outputs before the next year's UN climate change conference in Paris, saying only action will secure the future of our people.