Tuvalu Announces Intention to Build Itself in Metaverse

Tuvalu, a microstate in the southern Pacific Ocean, announced that it intends to build itself in the metaverse in an attempt to rescue itself from rising sea levels. 

The announcement was made by Tuvalu’s Minister of Justice, Communication, and Foreign affairs Simon Kofe, during the COP27, held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Reuters reported. 

Kofe clarified that building the Pacific nation in the metaverse is the only way to preserve the country’s culture and history to make the children see where their grandparents had lived. 

“Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people and to keep them safe from harm, no matter what happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud,” Kofe said while standing on a digital replica on the island. 

He warned that more countries would join his country if there is no global conscience and a global commitment to combating climate change. 

The idea of building Tuvalu in the metaverse will make it function as a sovereign state but its residents have to live somewhere else if it was submerged by the sea. 

Tuvalu is an island country in the west-central Pacific Ocean. It sits about halfway between Australia and Hawaii, where about 12,000 people only are living on it. 

Tuvalu will be the second country to join the virtual world, following Liberland, which announced to build a replica of itself in the metaverse earlier this month. 

However, countries and cities seek to expand their footprint in the metaverse over the last year like Barbados, which became the first sovereign country to have established an embassy in the metaverse, in addition to Seoul, which aims to complete its metaverse environment for all administrative services, including economy, education, culture, and tourism by 2026 after announcing its plan in 2021.