{"id":30670,"date":"2025-06-28T00:43:07","date_gmt":"2025-06-28T00:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30670"},"modified":"2025-06-28T01:27:36","modified_gmt":"2025-06-28T01:27:36","slug":"a-special-climate-visa-people-in-tuvalu-are-applying-fast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=30670","title":{"rendered":"A Special \u2018Climate\u2019 Visa? People in Tuvalu Are Applying Fast."},"content":{"rendered":"
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Nearly half the citizens of the tiny Pacific Island nation have already applied in a lottery for Australian visas amid an existential threat from global warming and sea-level rise.<\/p>\n

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As sea levels rise, Australia said it would offer a special, first-of-its-kind \u201cclimate visa\u201d to citizens of Tuvalu, a Polynesian island nation of atolls and sandbars where waters are eating away at the land.<\/p>\n

The visa lottery opened last week, and already nearly half of Tuvalu\u2019s population has applied.<\/p>\n

By any measure, Tuvalu is one of the smallest countries in the world. It\u2019s home to just 10,000 or so people scattered across nine small coral islands that add up to less than 10 square miles.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Seawater is increasingly seeping into the country\u2019s few drinking-water wells. Within a century, some scientists predict,<\/a> the twice-daily high tide alone will inundate more than 90 percent of the country\u2019s capital, the island of Funafuti, as well as Tuvalu\u2019s only airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Most Tuvaluans live on Funafuti, which is just a few feet above sea level.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cprovide a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Nearly half the citizens of the tiny Pacific Island nation have already applied in a lottery for Australian visas amid an existential threat from global warming and sea-level rise.As sea levels rise, Australia said it would offer a special, first-of-its-kind \u201cclimate visa\u201d 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\u2019s population has applied.By any measure, Tuvalu is one of the smallest countries in the world. It\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s capital, the island of Funafuti, as well as Tuvalu\u2019s 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 \u201cprovide a pathway for mobility with dignity as climate impacts worsen.\u201dThe 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.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30672,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30670"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30673,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30670\/revisions\/30673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/30672"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}