"[6] He linked the issue to climate change, and declared that it was "repugnant" for any citizens to have to leave their islands due to sea level rise having already had to flee the fallout from nuclear testing.

[6] He helped organize the Marshall Islands' independence from the United States[9] and later served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1979 to 1987, from 2008 to 2009 and from 2014 to 2016.

[12][13] The coalition of over 90 countries was credited with galvanising the conference around the goal of holding global temperatures to a 1.5 °C increase.

[13] He has been credited as instrumental in securing the Paris Agreement, and its aspirational goal of limiting the rise in temperatures to 1.5 °C.

[6] He was an outspoken proponent for ocean thermal energy conversion technology (OTEC) and tried to get the US and Marshallese governments to agree to build a 20 MW floating OTEC power plant by Kwajalein atoll in the Marshall Islands in association with Energy Harvesting Systems of Honolulu, Hawaii.