H.E. Anote Tong
President, Kiribati
H.E. Anote Tong, Sunhak Peace Prize Laureate, is President of Kiribati, a small island nation located in the Pacific Ocean that is threatened with submersion by 2050 because of the rising sea levels caused by climate change. The sea-level rise is causing food and water shortages, reduced land area, overpopulation and rapid increase in diseases. President Tong believes that climate change is the largest moral challenge of the 21st Century, and has appealed to the UN General Assembly to address its dangers. President Tong promotes the Pacific Island Nations Marine Protected Area Network to conserve 10 percent of the world’s oceans.