Tuvalu is nine Pacific islands, with an elevation of just 4.6m above sea level. Estimated to be submerged by 2050, displacing 12,000 citizens with no place to call home. With the lowest GDP of all UN nations, Tuvalu can’t afford to fund climate adaptation measures alone. Yet for 30 years, wealthy nations have resisted agreeing to a loss and damage fund for nations like Tuvalu. And since 1933, The Montevideo Convention has defined a “nation” as requiring physical territory. Without land, Tuvalu wouldn’t exist. Its sovereign survival dependant on other nations changing international law. We needed a strategy and idea that could achieve four supremely ambitious objectives: COP27 agreement to a loss & damage fund for nations impacted by climate change. Diplomatic recognition of Tuvalu’s sovereignty even without physical land. Global media coverage to raise Tuvalu’s plight worldwide and Citizen lobbying of environment ministers to drive change.

The idea was to become The World’s First Digital Nation.

However a complete digitization would not be complete before COP27.

We recreated digitally the first part of Tuvalu to be lost to rising seas: Te Afualiku islet, which would become Minister Kofe’s COP27 speech location, laying bare Tuvalu’s plight in the face of global inaction.

With three-pronged communications: Minister Kofe’s COP27 address, global media, and citizen lobbying of local environment ministers.

Minister Kofe addressed the world from the first part of the Digital Nation, “Because the world has not acted…we in the Pacific have had to act… as our land disappears, we have no choice to become the World’s First Digital Nation”

We targeted global news media , while the address and global media coverage contained a call-to-action via Tuvalu.tv. Engaging people worldwide to “Save the Real Tuvalu” by emailing their environment minister.

Four insights inspired our strategy.

SOCIETY: Global culture obsessed with Plan A, in denial of Plan B.

“There’s No Plan B” has echoed from t-shirts to the Eiffel Tower. Repeated by UN Secretary General; “We don’t have plan B because there’s no planet B”.

BRAND: Tuvalu acting on becoming a landless nation.

No global action forced Tuvalu to take steps towards becoming a landless nation:

Changing international law.

Digitally mapping landmass and borders.

Recording cultural heritage.

Transferring services to the cloud.

CATEGORY: From victim to pioneering world-leader.

There are three core Tuvaluan values:

1. Kaitasi -shared responsibility

2. Olaga fakafenua – interconnectedness

3. Fale-pili –good neighbours

All combining to reposition Tuvalu from victim to pioneering world-leader.

CUSTOMER: Citizens don’t contemplate countries existing online.

‘Digitisation’ has touched everything. Yet one element remains physical for everyone - our country. Our revelation, a simple provocation:

Tuvalu would become the world’s First Digital Nation.

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. Defining physical borders and land mass as they are now for perpetuity in a digital space is one way to record the defined land mass. But the only way to change international law was by drawing international attention. Tuvalu needed to cut through climate fatigue and earn global coverage.

As a tiny nation with shrinking resources, Tuvalu doesn’t have marketing budgets, so global conversation 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 delegates and reporters, we announced Tuvalu’s radical survival plan: To become The World’s First Digital Nation.

What started as a video speech became a haunting vision of Tuvalu’s future. On screen, Minister Kofe appeared to address 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, an unsettling shift occurred. The environment around him began to freeze and stutter – revealing the island was a digital recreation– the first islet of the Digital Nation to be mapped. Tree-by-tree, stone-by-stone rebuilt as accurately as possible – but never close to capturing the beauty of the real thing. Carefully placed glitches revealed the digital recreation’s inevitable shortcomings; the dark, digital void around the island represented the last refuge of a nation with nowhere left to turn.

The digital migration of country is 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 earnt US $12.6 million AVE, reaching 2.1 billion people worldwide. 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 traffic from 160 countries – 118 in just 48 hours. Such reach turned to action days after the announcement, a historic loss and damage fund for nations like Tuvalu was established at COP27.

The momentum continues. At COP28, developed nations pledged US$700 million to the fund. Minister Kofe’s updates on Tuvalu’s progress sparked media coverage reaching 703 million worldwide. In the last 18 months, media interest provided a platform for Tuvalu to share their messages with global media.

Now, 26 nations 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 First Digital Nation is not just a tragic climate adaptation strategy and plan for survival, but a powerful provocation for global action.

DIPLOMATIC OBJECTIVE: Recognition of landless sovereignty.

Target: 6+ nations recognise Tuvalu’s statehood.

Result: 26 nations recognised Tuvalu’s statehood.

FINANCIAL OBJECTIVE: Compensation fund for climate damage

Target: Delegates of 132 countries commit to a loss and damage fund.

Result: Delegates of all 197 countries committed to a loss and damage fund.

Three decades since first proposed.

“We have determined a way forward on decades-long conversation on funding for loss and damage.”

UN Climate Change Executive Secretary

COMMUNICATIONS OBJECTIVE: International media coverage

Target: Coverage in 100+ news outlets worldwide.

Result: Immediate coverage 358+ news outlets worldwide.

(The New York Times, BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, CNN, Al Jazeera, Daily Mail, DW, The Australian, ABC and World Economic Forum, and more since)

BEHAVIOUR OBJECTIVE: Global advocacy

Target: Citizens from 50+ countries visit Tuvalu.tv

Result: Citizens from 160 countries visited Tuvalu.tv

Target: 10% of visitors email their government.

Result: 23% of visitors emailed their government.