Originally published 2021-11-10.
In November 2021 Tuvalu's foreign minister, Simon Kofe, addressed the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow from a lectern set up knee-deep in the Pacific Ocean. Dressed in a suit and tie, trouser legs rolled up, he delivered his statement while the sea lapped around him. The video was recorded on 5 November off Funafuti, Tuvalu's capital, and shown at the conference the following week. The point was simple and visual: for a nation whose land barely rises above the waves, sea-level rise is not a distant forecast.
The images travelled around the world. Here is the story behind the speech, why Tuvalu is so exposed, what other small island leaders said at COP26, and what Tuvalu has done since to protect both its people and its existence as a state.
The speech in the sea
Kofe was filmed at the far end of Fongafale, the main islet of Funafuti atoll, by Tuvalu's public broadcaster. Rather than speak from a studio or a podium in Glasgow, he sent a recorded statement. His team chose a backdrop that would show delegates what their negotiations meant in practice.
In a statement released with the video, Kofe said it "juxtaposes the COP26 setting with the real-life situations faced in Tuvalu". He also stressed what his country was already doing, especially its work on human mobility: how people might move, and keep their rights, if parts of their homeland become uninhabitable.
The film was effective because it needed no translation. One man, one lectern and a rising tide told the story more clearly than any graph.
Why Tuvalu is so vulnerable
Tuvalu is one of the smallest countries on Earth: three reef islands and six coral atolls spread across the central Pacific, with a total land area of about 26 square kilometres and a population of roughly 10,600 at the 2022 census. More than half of the people live on Funafuti.
The land is extremely low. The highest natural point in the country, on Niulakita, is about 4.6 metres above sea level, and much of the inhabited land is far lower. The tide gauge at Funafuti records sea levels rising by about 3.9 millimetres a year, roughly twice the global average.
The effects are already visible. During spring and king tides, seawater bubbles up through the porous coral beneath the islands and forms pools in gardens and roads; low-lying areas, including parts of the airport, flood. Salt water seeps into the thin freshwater lens that people once relied on for drinking and for growing pulaka, a traditional root crop. Storms and cyclones push waves further inland than before.
Some studies suggest that even a modest further rise could make parts of the country uninhabitable this century, though atolls are dynamic and the outcome for each island differs. The worry is less that Tuvalu will vanish overnight than that life there will become steadily harder.
Other island voices at COP26
Kofe was not alone. Leaders of low-lying and small island states used COP26 to argue that limiting warming to 1.5°C, rather than 2°C, was a matter of survival for them.
Maldivian President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, whose nation sits in the Indian Ocean, warned in Glasgow that his islands were "slowly being eaten by the sea, one by one". Without a change in course, he said, the Maldives could disappear by the end of the century.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley gave one of the summit's most quoted speeches. She described warming of two degrees as "a death sentence" for island and coastal nations from Antigua and Barbuda to the Maldives, Fiji, Kenya, Mozambique, Samoa and her own country.
These leaders have long played an outsized role in climate talks. Small island states pushed for the 1.5°C goal to be written into the 2015 Paris Agreement, and they continue to press for funding to help vulnerable countries adapt and to cover loss and damage they cannot avoid.
Rising seas: what the science says
Global sea levels rise for two main reasons: ocean water expands as it warms, and melting glaciers and ice sheets add water to the sea. Because the oceans respond slowly, some further rise is already locked in even if emissions fall quickly; how much depends heavily on how fast the world cuts greenhouse gases.
For atoll nations, average rise is only part of the picture. What hurts most is the combination of higher seas with king tides, storm surges and swell, which push salt water further inland each time. That is why adaptation for countries like Tuvalu includes sea walls and raised land as well as plans for mobility, and why their leaders insist that rich, high-emitting countries carry most of the responsibility.
What Tuvalu has done since
Tuvalu has not waited for others. Its response has followed several tracks at once.
Protecting statehood
In September 2023 Tuvalu's parliament passed a new constitution, in force from 1 October 2023, which declares that the state of Tuvalu will continue to exist despite any loss of territory caused by climate change. Kofe, who had chaired the constitutional review, resigned from cabinet in July 2023 to focus on that work. Separately, in November 2022 he announced plans to create a digital version of the country, preserving its land, culture and records online in case the physical islands are lost.
Building higher land
Under the Tuvalu Coastal Adaptation Project, work began in December 2022 to reclaim a platform of land on Funafuti about 780 metres long and 100 metres wide, designed to stay above projected sea levels and storm waves beyond 2100.
The Falepili Union with Australia
On 9 November 2023 Tuvalu and Australia signed the Falepili Union, a treaty on climate cooperation, mobility and security. It offers a pathway for up to 280 Tuvaluans a year to move to Australia with the right to live, work and study there, about 2.5 per cent of the population. Australia also committed to help after major disasters, health emergencies or military aggression, while Tuvalu agreed to consult Australia on other security arrangements, a clause that drew criticism at home. The agreement also reaffirms Tuvalu's statehood and sovereignty regardless of sea-level rise. After talks on the security wording, the treaty entered into force on 28 August 2024.
Why the image still matters
Climate negotiations often feel abstract: percentages, targets and deadlines discussed in conference halls far from the people most affected. Kofe's video cut through that because it put a real place and a real person in the frame. It reminded the world that for some countries the question is not how comfortable the future will be, but whether their homeland, culture and passports will survive.
Tuvalu's later choices show the same mix of defiance and realism. It is raising land and defending its shores, it has written its continued existence into law, and it has secured safe routes for people who choose to move. Few nations have had to plan for so many futures at once.
Sources: CNBC Africa/Reuters, 9 November 2021: Pacific island minister films climate speech knee-deep in the ocean; Wikipedia: Simon Kofe; Wikipedia: Tuvalu; Wikipedia: Falepili Union; Center for Global Development, December 2023: Australia-Tuvalu climate and migration agreement.
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