CNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS features an interview with Anote Tong, President of Kiribati. Tong speaks with Fareed about how climate change is critically effecting the island nation, and what role America plays in the debate.

On the subject of America’s role in the climate change debate, Tong said to Fareed, “Let me make the point that whatever is agreed within the United States today, with China, it will not have a bearing on our future, because already, it’s too late for us. And so we are that canary. But hopefully, that experience will send a very strong message that we might be on the front line today, but others will be on the front line next – and the next and the next.”

TRANSCRIPT:

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, GPS: President Obama’s ambitious cap on carbon emissions sparked a lot of debate this week, but for another country, the climate change debate is more than words and policies, it is a matter, literally, of survival. Kiribati, an island nation in the Pacific Ocean that 100,000 people call home, is the canary in the coal mine. It could be uninhabitable just 30 years from now thanks to rising sea level. Understand that […]