Anote Tong

President and Climate Change Advocate · 1952

Who is Anote Tong?

Anote Tong was born on 11 June 1952 in Tabuaeran (Fanning Island) in the Line Islands, the third of six children of a Chinese migrant father, Tong Ting Hai, and an I-Kiribati mother, Nei Keke Randolph, from Abaiang and Maiana. He was educated at St Bede's College in New Zealand, earned a science degree from the University of Canterbury, and completed a master's degree in economics at the London School of Economics. Tong entered Kiribati politics and was elected the fourth President of Kiribati in July 2003, narrowly defeating his own brother, Harry Tong, and was re-elected in 2007 and 2012, serving until 2016. As president of a nation made up of low-lying coral atolls averaging under two metres above sea level, Tong became one of the world's most prominent voices warning that climate change and rising seas threatened his country's freshwater, food security, and long-term habitability. He championed a policy he called "migration with dignity," preparing I-Kiribati citizens to relocate abroad with skills and legal standing rather than as a sudden wave of climate refugees, and in 2014 his government purchased roughly 5,500 acres of land on Vanua Levu, Fiji, initially as insurance against displacement and later repurposed mainly for food security. After leaving office he continued to speak at the United Nations and international forums on behalf of small island states.

Sources: Anote Tong, Wikipedia (biographical summary, elections, education) · Scientific American, "As Seas Rise, Pacific Island President Favors Buying Land Abroad" (2014) · CNN, Fareed Zakaria GPS interview with Anote Tong, 8 June 2014 · The Guardian, interview quoted 10 October 2018

Quotes by Anote Tong

“Whatever is agreed within the United States today, with China, it will not have a bearing on our future, because already, it's too late for us.”

Spoken during a 2014 CNN interview, reflecting Tong's view that global climate negotiations, however important, could no longer reverse the sea-level rise already threatening Kiribati.

Anote Tong

Source: Anote Tong, interview on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, 8 June 2014

“We are that canary. But hopefully, that experience will send a very strong message that we might be on the front line today, but others will be on the front line next — and the next and the next.”

Tong compared Kiribati to a canary in a coal mine, warning that his nation's climate crisis was an early warning of what other countries would eventually face.

Anote Tong

Source: Anote Tong, interview on CNN's Fareed Zakaria GPS, 8 June 2014

“Our fate has already been decided.”

Reflecting on scientific projections for low-lying Pacific nations like Kiribati, spoken years after leaving office.

Anote Tong

Source: Anote Tong, interview with RNZ Pacific, "Former Kiribati President Anote Tong: Our fate has already been decided"

“Sea level rise is turning our freshwater resources salty, rendering the land unable to grow staple crops such as coconut and taro, and eating away our shoreline.”

A description of the direct, visible effects of rising seas on daily life and food security in Kiribati.

Anote Tong

Source: Anote Tong, quoted in The Guardian, 10 October 2018