Kiribati President calls for Australia to combat climate change

President Anote Tong of Kiribati on Thursday criticised the Australian government's decision to approve a giant coal mine and urged them to address climate change in the build up to the major UN climate summit in Paris.

Small Island Developing States (SIDS) including Kiribati, Vanuatu and Tuvalu are the most vulnerable countries in the world to the impacts of climate change including rising in sea levels, droughts and flooding.

President Anote Tong in August called for an international moratorium on new coal mines to limit global warming.

Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott, who supported the fossil fuel industry, was replaced with Malcolm Turnbull earlier this year, and his government last month approved a giant mine by Indian developers Adani Enterprises.

Addressing the press in the Victorian city of Melbourne, President Tong said: "I know that the government approved the Carmichael coal mine. It's disappointing."

The Australian government reissued an environmental permit for construction of the mine in October in the untapped Galilee Basin in northern Australia, which could export an estimated 2 billion tonnes of coal.

The mine has faced new legal challenge from conservationists and prominent Australians, including a former central bank governor and leading scientists have also made objections.

President Anote Tong said: "In Paris, there is a great need to come to some agreement. The question is, if it is not a moratorium on new coal mines, then what? There has to be a genuine commitment to transitioning away from fossil fuels."