A Special ‘Climate’ Visa? People in Tuvalu Are Applying Fast.

Climate|A Special ‘Climate’ Visa? People in Tuvalu Are Applying Fast.

As sea levels rise, Australia said it would offer a special, first-of-its-kind “climate visa” to citizens of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation of atolls and sandbars where waters are eating away at the land.

The visa lottery opened last week, and already nearly half of Tuvalu’s population has applied.

By any measure, Tuvalu is one of the smallest countries in the world. It’s home to just 10,000 or so people scattered across nine small coral islands that add up to less than 10 square miles.

It has been losing land to rising seas and further losses could make it one of the first countries to become uninhabitable because of climate change.

Seawater is increasingly seeping into the country’s few drinking-water wells. Within a century, some scientists predict, the twice-daily high tide alone will inundate more than 90 percent of the country’s capital, the island of Funafuti, as well as Tuvalu’s only airport.

Most Tuvaluans live on Funafuti, which is just a few feet above sea level.

Concerns like these underpinned an agreement two years ago between Tuvalu and Australia, with the latter pledging not just to help build sea walls but to grant a special visa to 280 Tuvaluans per year that would “provide a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen.”

The agreement, known as the Falepili Union treaty, allows grantees to obtain permanent residency and move freely between the countries. But both countries have taken pains to avoid using language that implies that Tuvalu may one day cease to exist.