Enele Sosene Sopoaga
Former Prime Minister and Climate Diplomat · 1956
Who is Enele Sosene Sopoaga?
Enele Sosene Sopoaga, born on 10 February 1956, is a Tuvaluan diplomat and politician who served as Prime Minister of Tuvalu from August 2013 to September 2019. He was elected to Parliament in 2010 and briefly served as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs, Environment and Labour before being elected Prime Minister by his fellow MPs in a secret ballot. Long before taking that office, Sopoaga built an international reputation as one of the Pacific's most persistent climate diplomats: he was the chief spokesman for the Pacific Small Island Developing States at the 2009 UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen and continued as a lead negotiator for small-island climate positions at successive UN conferences. As Prime Minister he represented Tuvalu at the UNFCCC COP20 in Lima in 2014 and COP21 in Paris in 2015, consistently pressing for the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit championed by the Alliance of Small Island States, warning that rising seas threatened his low-lying nation's very existence. His government also strengthened Tuvalu's diplomatic ties and advocated for the human rights dimensions of climate displacement on the world stage.
Sources: Wikipedia, "Enele Sopoaga" · UNFCCC, Tuvalu National Statement, COP20, Lima, December 2014 · United Nations, press remarks with UN Secretary-General and PM Sopoaga, 17 May 2019