24 Aug 2017

De Brum helped deepen climate change discussion - Tong

6:10 am on 24 August 2017

A former Kiribati president says the late Tony de Brum helped deepen climate change discussions.

Tony de Brum

Tony de Brum Photo: AFP

Mr de Brum, who was a former Marshall Islands government minister and Climate Ambassador, died on Tuesday aged 72.

Anote Tong has lobbied for climate change action around the world and says Mr de Brum was often by his side.

He says de Brum was able to help usher in a new era of activism and discussion.

"I've been talking with people all of this week, coming from different parts of the world, to advocate on climate change, so there is a new trend. When I was talking about climate change more than 10 years ago nobody was listening, nobody was talking about it as a human problem, it was about science.

"But now we're talking right now about climate justice, about human rights of climate change, about the displacement of people.

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