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 by 2050.

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

In addition to the displacement from loss of physical land, Tuvalu faces another threat: the loss of its rights as a nation. International law currently dictates that 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 are all at risk.

Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe was scheduled to speak at COP27, the UN Climate Change Conference. Though it was expected to be a typical diplomatic address to assembled delegates and reporters, Minister Kofe used the moment to unveil a radical plan for survival.

For years, Tuvalu has petitioned global leaders to take meaningful climate action, but without success. Now, time has run out, and Tuvalu expects to lose its land to rising sea levels.

At COP27, Tuvalu announced its radical plan to preserve its culture and protect its sovereignty: Tuvalu would become the First Digital Nation.

This move will allow Tuvalu to:

- Fight for sovereignty, protecting Tuvalu’s international rights on the world stage.

- Preserve history, culture, and records of native species.

- Ensure ongoing protection of Tuvalu’s underwater ecological sites, and precious reef systems important in regulating the Earth’s climate.

- Facilitate the governance of a Tuvaluan diaspora by connecting displaced people.

- Warn the world of what’s to come without meaningful climate action. As Minister Kofe himself says: “We live with the realities of climate change and have a responsibility to forewarn the world as to what is coming ahead.”

Tuvalu will become the First Digital Nation, ensuring its sovereignty and ability to govern in the face of a worst-case scenario.

During his address at COP27, Minister Kofe outlined the plan, which involves gradually migrating Tuvalu's government services, culture, and history to the cloud.

This digital transformation process will allow Tuvalu to remain a functioning country even after its physical land is no more. The first step in this process is the digitization of Tuvalu's land, which will serve as a crucial component in its legal fight for a revised definition of territorial sovereignty under international law.

The Digital Nation is both a plan for survival as a sovereign state, and a provocation designed to drive urgent climate mitigation.

Our strategy was twofold: help Tuvalu’s Minister Kofe deliver a wake-up call to world leaders during his COP27 speech and show the world what Tuvalu’s future will be like if sea levels continue to rise.

To provoke action and cut through the news cycle surrounding COP27, we had to create a striking announcement that demonstrated Tuvalu’s ambition to preserve its nation while raising awareness of the nation’s plight, ensuring that the public put pressure on world leaders to act and save the real Tuvalu. 

With a confirmed spot at COP27, we created a film for maximum cut-through and directed people to a landing page. We captured their details for future communications while offering them an easy template to write to their own environmental leaders, urging them to honour the Paris Agreement’s 1.5-degree target (which no nation was on track to hit).

The First Digital Nation was launched at COP27, the United Nations Climate Change Conference, with a recorded address from Tuvaluan Minister Simon Kofe.

In the film, Minister Kofe appeared to address delegates from Te Afualiku Islet, Tuvalu’s smallest island (and the first part of the country that will be submerged by rising sea levels). Halfway through the speech, the island around him began to glitch – revealing that it was actually a digital recreation. It was then that Minister Kofe announced Tuvalu’s plan to become a digital nation.

As soon as the COP27 speech ended, the PR rollout began. Knowing global support was needed to achieve digital statehood, we engaged local and global media to ensure our key message was amplified from the moment the story broke. The speech film was shared widely, directing a global audience to the campaign website where they could pressure leaders into action.

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

It was covered by 359 global publications, including The New York Times and The Guardian, and the news trended on Tiktok and Twitter. 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, nine 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.

The project was not just an announcement of a tragic climate adaptation strategy, but a powerful provocation for global action.

“Te Afualiku has great cultural significance to our country,” said Minister Kofe. “The name of the island was originally called ‘Te Afu Alii’ which is translated as ‘the sweat of the Chief’. It speaks of the harsh environmental conditions of the islands that Tuvaluans have endured for centuries and has made people resilient. It is fitting that Te Afualiku is the location from which I called upon the world to change its ways in an effort to save our future. It is my hope that through our digital nation initiative we can preserve the history, culture, and everything that islets like Te Afualiku represents for Tuvaluans.”

Minister Kofe is adamant that Tuvalu not be seen as a victim of climate change, but a leader of climate adaptation. “Although the physical island of Te Afualiku maybe threatened, the values of endurance and resilience should continue to live on in every Tuvaluan.”