Country opts for digital clone as it faces extinction

When Lily Teafa was growing up in Tuvalu, her uncles would go fishing every day and come home with a big catch to share with the neighbours.

- Kalolaine Fainu

Now, they come home most days and say "sei poa" or "bad catch". The 28-year-old, who works with a youth-led organisation on climate change projects such as coral restoration in the tiny Pacific nation, says signs of her homeland slipping away are everywhere. "Whenever we go for a picnic, especially at the northern and southern ends of this beautiful island, we always notice that a piece of land has been washed away by the sea."

Tuvalu is expected to be one of the first countries in the world to be completely lost to climate change. The three coral islands and six atolls that make up the country have a total land mass of less than 26 sq km. At current rates of sea level rise, some estimates suggest that half the land area of the capital, Funafuti, will be flooded by tidal waters within three decades. By 2100, 95% of land will be flooded by periodic king tides, making it essentially uninhabitable.

The question of survival is an urgent one. Teafa says that for young people in particular, fear is the predominant emotion. "It's the worst feeling ever ... we're afraid of the future."

In the face of this reality, work is under way in Tuvalu to reclaim land, along with attempts to preserve its culture and history online, in groundbreaking plans that could see it become the first wholly digitised nation existing in the metaverse.

Funafuti covers the entire atoll on which it is located, with one main road bisecting the length of the island, at one point narrowing to 20 metres between shorelines. Most buildings cluster as close to the centre of the island as possible; homes, shops and churches are positioned right up to the edge of the road. Passing by, you can see directly into people's homes.