A Tropical Island Country About To Disappear From Climate Change Is The World's First 'Digital Nation'

Tuvalu, one of the world's least-visited countries, is a small island nation located in the South Pacific. While it may look like one of these typical Polynesian islands designed for any traveler's bucket list, unfortunately, it faces a much grimmer reality: Much of its landmass is expected to be underwater by 2050 due to rising sea levels caused by climate change. Because of this, members of Tuvalu's government are attempting to preserve as much of their homeland as they can online by building a digital replica of the country.

The project, called Digital Nation, aims to eventually digitally preserve every street, beach, and house in Tuvalu. Citizens have also been asked to share important memories, documents, and cultural artifacts so that they can be conserved. The initiative plans to digitize citizens' passports and intends to eventually allow marriages, deaths, and elections to be documented virtually. 

The project was unveiled by Simon Kofe, the head of Tuvalu's Ministry of Justice, Communication, and Foreign Affairs, at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference. There, Kofe shared a video of himself on Te Afualiku, the first of Tuvalu's islands expected to be swallowed by the sea. Though he initially appears to be on a real beach, the frame soon pulls back to reveal that his image has been superimposed on a digitally manufactured landscape. "We cannot outrun the rising tides," said Kofe at the same conference the following year, "but we will do what we can to protect our statehood, our spirit, our values" (via YouTube).

Climate change is threatening almost every aspect of life on Earth, destroying many iconic destinations in the process. Polynesian island nations, such as Tuvalu, are among the first to experience its consequences. The island is facing rising sea levels, which in turn can result in increasingly intense storms, cyclones, and hurricanes, the destruction of coral reefs and vital marine ecosystems, and floods that are set to make low-lying islands uninhabitable.

The citizens of Tuvalu's nine coral islands and atolls have already faced intensifying droughts and floods that threaten food security, infrastructure, and many other aspects of life. Unfortunately, these risks are projected only to worsen as the globe heats up and ice caps melt. According to a report from the World Bank Group, Tuvalu's inhabitants are also set to face higher levels of disease and increased numbers of invasive species, all due to climate change.

Rising sea levels mean that soon, all that might be left of Tuvalu are photos, videos, and memories. In addition to losing their homes, Tuvalu's residents also face losing their rights as members of a nation, which is another reason why it is converting itself into a digital country. "By recreating its land, archiving its culture, and digitizing its government, Tuvalu can exist as a nation even after its land is no more," reads Tuvalu's Digital Nation website. "Our digital migration has begun."

Tuvalu's Digital Nation project is one step its government is taking as the nation grapples with these realities. The project will include a network where citizens can connect, share resources and employment opportunities, and collaborate to preserve their culture. The nation has also amended its constitution to ensure that Tuvaluans have legal rights even when not physically residing in their homeland — if it goes underwater, international law could fail to provide a blueprint for how citizenship works in this scenario. 

Steps are also being taken to ensure that Tuvalu's 11,000 inhabitants can find refuge elsewhere. In 2023, Australia agreed to allow 280 citizens of Tuvalu to migrate there permanently each year. Since then, 80% of Tuvalu's inhabitants have applied for this visa, with the first group expected to move in the summer of 2025. However, many citizens are refusing to give up on their homes. Tuvalu's government has initiated the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project in order to prepare its shorelines and infrastructure for rising sea levels, and many Tuvaluans have joined this fight against carbon emissions.

Ultimately, there is no way to make up for the loss and pain of having to migrate away from one's homeland, particularly when this migration is caused by carbon emissions and the greed of fossil fuel companies. Tuvalu's digital copy will never live up to the beauty of Tuvalu's real, pristine beaches. However, it is certainly a wake-up call about just how necessary it is to address climate change to ensure that even more people don't face similar tragedies.