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.