FIJI'S Leah Wickham, 24, sobbed as she pleaded with world leaders at the climate change meeting in Copenhagen to save her homeland from rising sea levels and global warming.
She made the plea as world media and UN leaders from around the globe met at day one of the two-week climate change meeting at Copenhagen.
"Fifty years from now, my children will be raising their own families," said Leah, a member of the Greenpeace Activist Group in Suva and a keynote speaker of the youth action group Tcktcktck.
"It is my hope that they will still be able to call our beautiful island home. It is my hope that our culture and our identity will never be compromised."
Miss Wickham said the whole world had made its stand on the urgent need for government action and people would be watching closely over the next two weeks for the outcome of the talks. She said governments around the world should start acting and stop talking.