A country that could become uninhabitable
Tuvalu is a Polynesian island country in the Pacific, roughly midway between Hawaii and Australia. It has three reef islands and six atolls, a land area of about 26 km², and 10,643 residents at the 2022 census. The capital and largest town is Funafuti.
Its highest point is 4.6 m above sea level, on Niulakita, the second-lowest maximum elevation of any country after the Maldives. At Funafuti, a tide gauge shows sea level rising 3.9 mm a year, about twice the global average, and satellite data since 1993 show about 5 mm a year.
Projections of a 20 to 40 cm rise over the next 100 years could make Tuvalu uninhabitable. A 2018 study found that 75 percent of the islands grew in area between 1971 and 2014, though the government disputed that Tuvalu is gaining habitable land.
In November 2022 Tuvalu announced plans to build a digital replica of itself to preserve its culture. On 10 November 2023 it signed the Falepili Union with Australia, which includes a pathway for 280 citizens a year to migrate for climate-related reasons.
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