After being elected Prime Minister, Sopoanga announced his intention to create a plan to improve education and healthcare in Tuvalu. He attended a United Nations Sustainable Development summit in Johannesburg in September 2002, where he warned that Tuvalu would be completely submerged in 50 years due to global warming-related increases in sea level. On 24 September 2003, Sopoanga delivered a speech to the United Nations General Assembly which outlined issues facing Tuvalu on its 25th anniversary of independence, such as economic underdevelopment. He called climate change "a slow and insidious form of terrorism" against Tuvalu.