TUVALU’S Governor-General, Reverend Sir Tofiga Vaevalu Falani, has called for urgent global action on climate mobility, warning that the Pacific nation’s future cannot be separated from the rights, identity and sovereignty of its people as sea-level rise intensifies.
Addressing the Berlin Climate Mobility Forum, a high-level international gathering of leaders, policymakers, experts and communities affected by climate change, Sir Falani said Tuvalu is confronting a threat without precedent.
“Tuvalu speaks today not merely as a nation facing a crisis, but as a people facing an existential question that no nation in human history has ever had to answer: what happens when the land beneath your feet becomes constantly flooded?” he told delegates.
His comments put Tuvalu at the centre of a growing international debate over climate mobility, the movement of people driven by worsening environmental conditions.
The forum is intended to advance global cooperation on the issue and launch a Global Consensus on Climate Mobility, a framework aimed at promoting human dignity, rights and resilience as displacement pressures grow.
Sir Falani said Tuvalu’s response rests on four priorities: protecting the right of people to remain in their homeland, ensuring safe and dignified mobility pathways for those who must move, safeguarding the country’s sovereignty and statehood, and preserving its culture and heritage.
He made it clear that Tuvalu does not accept climate change as grounds for erasing a nation’s legal standing.
“Tuvalu sovereignty is permanent. Our people will preserve their rights, identity and legal standing in the international order regardless of the climate crisis,” he said.
The Governor-General also drew a direct line between responsibility and consequence, arguing that Tuvalu is paying the price for a crisis it did not create.
“The sea is rising. The world must rise with us,” he said.
For Tuvalu, climate mobility is not only a humanitarian issue but also a test of whether the international system can protect a country’s people, territory and statehood as the physical realities of climate change worsen.
