The people of Tuvalu—a nation of nine small islands in the South Pacific Ocean—need a new place to live. The country is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, and surrounding sea levels are rising 1.5 times faster than the global average. “Docks are destroyed by high winds and high tides, and beaches are disappearing,” says Kato Ewekia, a climate activist from Tuvalu. Scientists predict that by 2050, half of Funafuti—Tuvalu’s largest island—will be underwater during high tide.
In 2023, Tuvalu signed a treaty with Australia, which committed to helping with projects like seawalls, as well as offering Australian citizenship to 280 Tuvaluans per year. About half of Tuvalu’s 11,000 citizens applied for the program in 2025. “We are deeply connected to the land and sea,” says Ewekia. “Leaving home is a very hard thing to do.”