Tony deBrum

Who is Tony deBrum?

Tony deBrum was a Marshallese statesman who became one of the world's most influential voices for climate action on behalf of small island nations. Born in 1945, as a boy he witnessed the sky turn red from fallout while fishing near Bikini Atoll during the era of U.S. nuclear weapons testing, an experience that shaped his lifelong advocacy for nuclear-affected communities. He helped organize the Marshall Islands' passage from United Nations trusteeship to independence and went on to hold numerous cabinet posts, including Minister of Foreign Affairs across three separate terms between 1979 and 2016, as well as Minister of Finance and Minister of Education. As Foreign Minister during the 2015 Paris climate negotiations, deBrum was instrumental in forming the High Ambition Coalition, a bloc of more than ninety developed and developing countries that pushed the conference toward adopting the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming target later enshrined in the Paris Agreement. For this work he shared the Right Livelihood Award, often called the "Alternative Nobel Prize," with the people of the Marshall Islands. He died in 2017 at age seventy-two, remembered internationally as a leading champion of climate justice for vulnerable island nations.

Sources: Wikipedia, "Tony deBrum" · Right Livelihood Foundation, "Tony de Brum / The People of the Marshall Islands" laureate citation (2015) · South China Morning Post, "Marshall Islander Tony de Brum, global voice for fighting climate change, dies at 72" (2017)