Tony de Brum

The country’s President Hilda Heine issued a statement in Majuro today lamenting the untimely passing away of a Pacific Islands ‘legend’ who fought for climate change & nuclear justice.

“He fought for our independence, he fought against the tyranny of nuclear weapons and for nuclear justice for our people and he led the international fight against climate change.

“The very existence of the Paris Agreement owes a lot to Tony de Brum. He was a giant in history, a legend in every meaning of the word and a custodian of our shared future, said President Heine.

Marshall Islands Foreign Affairs Minister Tony de Brum said the Pacific needed the PIDF because the former South Pacific Commission set up to look after the Pacific couldn't do so because of influence from donors such as US and UK.

He said donors gave funds with strings attached and it prevented regional organisations from doing what they were initially set up for. This, he said, had happened again to the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat and there was a need to have the PIDF.

de Brum was responding to the release in Australia today that it plans to cut carbon emissions by at least 26 per cent of 2005 levels by 2030. 

“As with Prime Minister Abbott’s attempt to ignore climate change when hosting the G20 last year, this will send a serious shudder through the Pacific and raise concern amongst its closest allies, including the United States and Europe.”