'We have no choice': Why Tuvalu has joined the metaverse | SBS News

Tuvalu said on Tuesday it plans to build a digital version of itself, replicating islands and landmarks and preserving its history and culture as rising sea levels threaten to submerge the tiny Pacific island nation.

Tuvalu's Foreign Minister Simon Kofe told the COP27 climate summit it was time to look at alternative solutions for his country's survival and this included Tuvalu becoming the first digitised nation in the metaverse - an online realm that uses augmented and virtual reality (VR) to help users interact.

"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," he said in the video that sees him standing on a digital replica of an islet threatened by rising sea levels.

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