"But, we must take charge of our own destiny and must never be satisfied with sitting back and allowing others to decide for us," the leader of the small Pacific island-nation said.
Kiribari comprises 33 small, low-lying atolls with a total land area of 811sq.km dispersed over 3.5 million square kilometres of ocean.
The country's people, living no higher than three metres above the sea, are facing unprecedented challenges.
Tuvalu, Tokelau, Marshall Islands and others are on the frontline of this major calamity.
"We look forward to Paris and the conclusion of a legally binding agreement with targets that will help reduce global warming and leave no one behind," Tong said.
"Any agreement reached must provide clear guarantees that the most vulnerable peoples will continue to have a future in this and the next generations. An agreement that we as a global community can justifiably be proud of as being the actions of an enlightened, moral and more civilised society."
For his country, an extra-territorial adaptation measure was purchase of land in Fiji, an investment for food security and future relocation in the event of a worst case scenario, he said.
The Government of Fiji has publicly welcomed them to the country as theirs becomes uninhabitable.
The President is a supporter of a campaign to cease oil drilling and exploration saying "we see this as a great step forward in the climate debate".
He has also called for innovative partnerships for lower emission between governments and the private sector, civil society and the public.
"The development is not only about economics. It is not solely about higher profits to increasingly raise the comforts of life. Development should encompass much more - it is about living within our means today to ensure our children and their children have a future."
Vulnerable people
Hoonae Kim, director for Asia and the Pacific at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said smallholder farmers and fishers are vulnerable to the adverse effects of climate change.
IFAD-supported projects provide climate and development finance to smallholder farmers so that they can access information, tools, and technologies that would help them adapt, he said.
In Viet Nam, one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world and among the countries hardest hit by climate change, two projects on climate change adaptation funded by IFAD began in the Mekong Delta provinces of Ben Tre and Tra Vinh last year.
Communities in these provinces are especially affected by increasing salinity. Reduced river flows due to upstream water consumption combined with sea level rise and storm surges are leading to salinity encroaching deep inland.
This is resulting in losses to aquaculture, perennial crops and livestock production.
These are forecast to become more severe amid a changing climate, constraining the livelihood options of the Mekong Delta communities even further.
The projects, which will go on until 2020, target poor communities, especially women and ethnic minority households. Thirty communes located along a salinity gradient have been selected in each province to test alternative livelihood models based on their poverty ranking and vulnerability to climate change.
They will be helped with development of climate-resilient agriculture systems, salinity-tolerant fish varieties and off-farm livelihood opportunities.
For instance, salinity barriers will be built to safeguard farmers' fields and aquaculture ponds.
Salinity monitoring and forecasting to help farmers access reliable information on the salinity content of their waterways will also be promoted.
Soil and water management practices to protect shrimp larvae and crops from adverse conditions will be improved.
With water stress being a critical challenge in the Mekong Delta, the projects will provide financing to upgrade canal systems, improve water storage, promote rainwater harvesting and adopt water-saving irrigation techniques.
The conference, which ended yesterday, was organised by IFAD and the Indonesian government. It brought together 300 rural development experts and government ministers from the Asia-Pacific to exchange ideas on achieving sustainable development and shaping rural development policies.
Hari Priyono, secretary general of the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, said, "we were looking forward to the opportunity to discuss common challenges and prioritise common actions, including those that will improve household food security and protect coastlines."
