World's First Climate Mobility Treaty: Australia and Tuvalu

Climate disasters are driving people to re-locate, but it's not necessary to wait until the disaster happens. It is much more humane and cost-effective -- where politics/economics/logistics align -- to get ahead of the migration issues associated with climate change. Enter Tuvalu, a highly exposed island nation. Most of the inhabitable parts of the atoll chain lie ~2 meters above sea level, so within 25 years experts predict half of its 12,000 citizens could be forced to leave their homes.

The government is investing in an array of measures for coastal protection, but it also created an escape hatch in 2023. That year, Australia and Tuvalu signed the Falepili Union Treaty and it came into force last year. In exchange for geo-strategic benefits for Australia, Tuvalu citizens receive:

• 280 climate visas / year , allowing Tuvaluans to permanently reside in Australia with the same access to healthcare, housing, education, and employment
• the right to study and work in Australia while maintaining the opportunity to return home to Tuvalu

This is being hailed as the world's first 'climate visa', and a concrete manifestation of "Migrate with Dignity," an idea first popularized by Kiribati's president back in 2017 for SIDS countries to get ahead of managing climate refugees by encouraging responsible and legal migration well in advance.

The visa has proved extraordinarily popular. Applications opened for ~30 days from 16 June - 18 July of this year, and 1/3 of the entire country applied for the visa in that limited timeframe. It remains to be seen how many are actually granted, how many folks move, whether most see it as a backup option versus plan A, etc., but I imagine this is far from the first treaty and visa of its kind that we'll see.