‘Hero’ of Paris climate agreement dies – BBC News

Former Marshall Islands foreign minister Tony De Brum, who played a key role in securing the Paris climate pact has passed away aged 72.
At countless UN climate meetings, Mr De Brum was a passionate champion of the rights of small island states.
He was instrumental in securing the “high ambition coalition” of rich and poor countries that was pivotal to a deal in the French capital.
Mr De Brum died at his home in Majuro, the capital of the Marshall Islands.
Born near the end of WWII, Mr De Brum grew up in an era when the tiny Pacific state was being used to host a number of US nuclear bomb tests.
When he was nine years old he witnessed one such detonation, while fishing with his grandfather around 200 miles away.
The resulting destruction of the atolls, the evacuation of many islanders as a result of the atomic tests became a hotly contested political issue. The islander’s push for independence and compensation played a large part in Tony De Brum’s political awakening. More