Over a third of Tuvalu's population has applied for Australia's climate visa, as rising sea levels threaten to submerge the Pacific nation within decades.

More than one-third of the people in Tuvalu have applied for a new climate visa to migrate to Australia, according to official figures, highlighting the existential threat posed by rising sea levels to the Pacific nation.

Tuvalu’s ambassador to the UN, Tapugao Falefou, told Reuters he was "startled by the huge number of people vying for this opportunity". The small island community is eager to know who will become the first recognised climate migrants under the scheme.

Tuvalu, with a population of around 11,000 spread across nine low-lying atolls between Australia and Hawaii, is among the countries most vulnerable to climate change. Scientists say sea level rise, driven by global warming, poses a severe risk to its survival.

Since applications opened this month under Australia’s visa lottery scheme, 1,124 individuals have registered. Including family members, the total number seeking to migrate has reached 4,052, under the Falepili Union treaty signed in 2023.

Applications close on 18 July, with an annual cap of 280 visas to ensure the country does not face a damaging brain drain. The visa will allow Tuvalu residents to live, work, and study in Australia, and they will gain access to health services and education similar to Australian citizens.

"Moving to Australia under the Falepili Union treaty will in some way provide additional remittance to families staying back," said Ambassador Falefou.

NASA scientists project that by 2050, daily tides could submerge half of Funafuti, Tuvalu's main atoll where 60 percent of its residents live. Villagers there already inhabit land strips as narrow as 20 metres wide. The worst-case scenario of a 2-metre sea level rise could leave 90 percent of Funafuti underwater.

Tuvalu's mean elevation is just two metres above sea level. Over the past three decades, the country has experienced a sea-level rise of 15 centimetres, one and a half times the global average.

In response, Tuvalu has built seven hectares of artificial land and is planning further reclamation projects, hoping these will remain above water until at least 2100.

The Australian visa programme marks one of the world’s first structured migration pathways for people displaced by climate change impacts, setting a precedent for other threatened island nations in the Pacific.

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