Who is he/she?
Ian Fry is the chief climate change negotiator for Tuvalu. His impassioned speech on behalf of Tuvalu at the 2009 United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen garnered major media attention. During the conference’s plenary sessions, he pleaded or consideration of the “Tuvalu Protocol” calling for strengthening of the Kyoto Protocol and sharply limiting greenhouse gas emissions in hopes of containing global temperature rise to within 1.5 degrees Celsius – far more than developed nations were proposing. Mr. Fry is the spokesperson for the Alliance of Small Island States on matters relating to land use, land use change and forestry and more generally on issues relating to mitigation in the consideration of future climate change regimes.
Did we speak with him/her?
No
Profession:
International Environmental Officer for the Environment Department of the Government of Tuvalu
Nationality:
Australian
Important Publications/Articles on Tuvalu:
Interview for the World Watch Institute, here.
Fry’s emotional plea for Tuvalu at the Copenhagen Conference (2009), here.
How did he get involved in Tuvalu?
Ian Fry has held his current position as international environmental officer for the government of Tuvalu for the past 11 years. Before, he worked for the Earth Negotiations Bulletin and Greenpeace, when he met the Prime Minister of Tuvalu and was asked to brief him on climate change. Following this meeting, Mr. Fry was invited to join the Tuvalu delegation at the 1997 climate negotiations in Kyoto and has endeavored on behalf of Tuvalu ever since.
(What methods does he use?)
His take on the controversy:
Tuvalu and other low-lying island states have been put in grave danger as a result of the adverse effects of climate change. He believes that binding agreements need to be made by world leaders in order to save Tuvalu from disappearing.
Quotations:
“The fate of my country rests in your hands”
“It is an irony of the modern world that the fate of the world is being determined by some senators in the US Congress.”