Comment: We can't beat the tide of climate change if we don't stop relying on coal
President Anote Tong of Kiribati has a challenge for Australians - ask yourself, do you really care about the safety of his people?
In a last-minute dash to Australia ahead of the Paris climate summit to meet with banks and environmentalists, Mr Tong is posing the question as part of his call for a global ban on new coal mines. 
"Are the people of Australia ready and willing to say 'OK we are safe, they can go?'" Mr Tong said.
"I challenge people, leaders in Australia to face the reality. Or let them say 'I don't care' and then go to church next Sunday."
A collection of tiny coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean, Kiribati is regarded as one of the nations most vulnerable to climate change. 
It is already suffering erosion on its atolls, salt water inundation of its limited freshwater resources and damaging changes in weather patterns bringing more storms, Mr Tong said - all threats forecast to get worse as the planet continues to warm.
In response, the Kiribati President is demanding that a global moratorium on new coal mines (and expanding existing ones) be considered at the Paris summit later this month.
Mr Tong said the call was a challenge to the global community to start taking some action, rather than just talking, to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
While in Australia Mr Tong will meet with banks, environment groups and even traditional owners who are legally challenging the massive proposed Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland. Coal from the mine, it is estimated, could ultimately put another 4.7 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere when burnt.
So far the Australia government - along with the federal opposition - has been insistent it will not support the Kiribati call for a moratorium on new coal mines. 
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg told the ABC this week  "we're opening new mines where there's the necessary investment because there's global demand for it".
Previously Mr Frydenberg has said there was a "strong moral case" for the development of the Carmichael mine - which would be Australia's biggest - because it would deliver energy to the world's poorest people in countries like India, while being cleaner than sources of coal from other countries.
In an interview with Fairfax Media at his Melbourne hotel , Mr Tong said he felt his nation was often seen as simply collateral damage in the broader push and pull of the global climate change debate.
He said the political figures who rejected calls to cut coal use and stop new development were not listening to climate science and their response was more about politics.
"I challenge any of these leaders to say 'Yes we know what is going to happen to Kiribati, but it doesn't matter. We don't care, because otherwise we would lose the next election.'
"They use the excuse of the poor. But we are the poor and we are speaking on our own behalf and we will be affected."
Kiribati's push for a global coal moratorium has been backed by 11 other Pacific nations - many facing similar climate challenges.
Last month 61 prominent Australians - including former Reserve Bank governor Bernie Fraser and Wallabies flanker David Pocock - signed an open letter backing the calls for a global coal moratorium.
Mr Tong also said he was optimistic a new global agreement on climate change would emerge from the Paris meeting and the signs were better than they had been before the failed Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.
He called for special provisions be included in the agreement to financially help the most threatened countries protect themselves from climate change, because even if emissions were one day brought to zero "we would still be in deep trouble".