The South Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has announced that it will build a digital version of itself in the metaverse to preserve its cultural heritage while facing an existential threat from climate change. “As our land disappears, we have no choice but to become the world’s first digital nation,” Tuvalu’s Foreign Minister Simon Kofe said while addressing the COP27 climate summit in a video broadcast that showed him standing on a digital replica of an islet that could soon be submerged due to rising sea levels.

“Our land, our ocean, our culture are the most precious assets of our people, and to keep them safe from harm, whatever happens in the physical world, we will move them to the cloud,” Kofe said. Like the threat of submersion due to rapid sea level rise…