Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific nation, is facing an impossible challenge. At the current rate of global sea level rise, the entire country will be submerged in decades. As the ocean closes in, Tuvalu is forced to ask: What happens to a country without land?  

At COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference, Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe was scheduled to speak. Though it was expected to be a typical diplomatic address to the assembled delegates and reporters, Minister Kofe used to unveil a radical plan for survival: Tuvalu will become the world’s first digital nation.  

Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe appeared to speak from Teafualiku Islet, Tuvalu’s smallest island and the first part of the country that will be taken by the sea. Halfway through the speech, though, the island around him began to glitch and stutter; revealing that it was actually the first part of the digital nation. 

The island, painstakingly recreated using drone footage and topographical data, was suspended in a digital void, representing the content that was still to come. This tiny island is the first step in the ongoing digital migration of the nation. This image – a lone island, surrounded by a sea of darkness – became a powerful symbol of Tuvalu’s plight.    

Immediately after its announcement at COP27, the campaign spread rapidly, reaching 2.1 billion people and 173 major global publications. That reach turned into action when, days after the announcement, a historic loss and damage fund for nations like Tuvalu was established at COP27. And already, nine different nations have agreed to legally recognise Tuvalu’s digital statehood – making the project not just a tragic climate adaptation strategy, but a powerful provocation for global action. 

Tuvalu will become the world’s first digital nation – but without meaningful climate action, it won’t be the last.