The nation of Tuvalu consists of nine islands with a peak elevation of just 4.6m above sea level. Current estimates predict that it will be completely submerged by 2050, displacing 12,000 citizens with no place to call home.

For 30 years, wealthy nations have resisted an agreement to fund climate adaptation measures for nations like Tuvalu.

But with the lowest GDP of all UN Members, Tuvalu can’t afford to go it alone.

And for 90 years, The Montevideo Convention has defined a “nation” as requiring physical territory. Tuvalu’s survival would also depend on other nations to creating a new norm in international law.

We needed a creative strategy and big idea that would convince other nations to commit to:

(1) Loss & damage fund for developing nations dealing with climate change

(2) Diplomatic recognition of Tuvalu’s sovereignty even without physical land

Tuvalu, a low-lying Pacific nation, is facing an impossible challenge. At the current rate of global sea level rise, it will be submerged by 2050.

As the ocean closes in, Tuvalu must ask: what happens to a country without land?

Beyond the displacement from loss of physical land, Tuvalu faces another threat – the loss of its rights as a nation.

International law currently dictates nations need a “defined physical territory” to exist, so Tuvalu risks becoming the first country to lose its sovereignty due to climate change. Tuvalu’s maritime boundaries, international voting rights, and voice on the world stage all at risk.

The only way to change international law is by drawing international attention, so Tuvalu needed to cut through climate fatigue and earn global coverage. As a tiny nation with shrinking resources, Tuvalu doesn’t have access to marketing budgets, so PR was crucial to ensuring Tuvalu’s message reached global media, the public, and world leaders.

Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe was scheduled to speak at COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference. Expected to be a typical diplomatic address to the assembled delegates and reporters, we used the moment to unveil Tuvalu’s radical plan for survival:

To become The World’s First Digital Nation.

What started as a typical video speech quickly became a haunting vision of Tuvalu’s future. On screen, Minister Kofe appeared to address the delegates from Te Afualiku Islet, Tuvalu’s smallest island, and the first part of the country to be submerged by rising sea levels. Halfway through the speech, an unsettling shift occurred. The environment around him began to freeze and stutter – revealing the island was a digital recreation.

Te Afualiku Islet was painstakingly recreated using drone footage and topographical data. Tree-by-tree and stone-by-stone, rebuilt as accurately as possible – but, of course, it could never come close to capturing the beauty of the real thing.

Carefully placed glitches revealed the inevitable shortcomings of a digital recreation; the dark, digital void around the island represented the last refuge of a nation with nowhere left to turn.

The digital migration of an entire country is a step as ground-breaking as it is tragic. Delivering his address from within the beginnings of the First Digital Nation, Minister Kofe grabbed the world’s attention.

With a $0 media budget, the project reached 2.1 billion people.

The announcement trended on TikTok and Twitter and was covered by 359 global publications, including The New York Times and The Guardian. The campaign website received global traffic from 160 countries – 118 in less than 48 hours.

All this reach turned to action when, days after the announcement, a historic loss and damage fund for nations like Tuvalu was established at COP27.

Most importantly, 26 different nations have already agreed to officially recognise Tuvalu’s digital statehood, creating a legal pathway to protect Tuvalu’s maritime boundaries, international voting rights, and place on the world stage.

A project that’s not just an announcement of a tragic climate adaptation strategy, but a powerful provocation for global action.