With a inhabitants of about 12,000, the 9 islands of Tuvalu sit within the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia. However for the way for much longer?
As a low-lying nation, it’s below extreme menace from local weather change and rising sea ranges, which might see it change into uninhabitable over the following century.
To protect the sovereignty of the nation, it turned to digital innovation and labored with Accenture Music. The ensuing metaverse answer, “The First Digital Nation,” received the Titanium Grand Prix at Cannes Lions and has now picked up the primary Innovation prize on the Gerety Awards.
Named after copywriter Frances Gerety, who coined the slogan “A Diamond Is Without end” for De Beers, the 2023 awards are being introduced right here on Adweek. What makes the Gerety Awards distinctive is that they’re judged by an all-female jury.
Tara Ford, chief inventive officer for The Monkeys, which is a part of Accenture Music, mentioned how the Innovation Grand Prix-winning mission got here to be. The total listing of winners follows this Q&A.
Adweek: The place did the mission originate? What was the preliminary transient?
Tara Ford: The Authorities of Tuvalu got here to us by means of mutual companions whom we labored with on different sustainability-related initiatives. Previous to this, Accenture had already labored with a number of Pacific islands, the Australian Institute of Marine Science, and Amazon Internet Companies on a latest conservation and local weather change mission.
It was actually humbling to listen to first-hand from Minister Simon Kofe and his group in regards to the challenges Tuvalu and its individuals are dealing with within the subsequent 5, 10 and 50 years.
He talked about how in a matter of many years, the low-lying Pacific nation will disappear as a result of rising sea ranges. As an island nation with a most peak of 4 meters (13 toes), they’re in an especially susceptible place in the case of the results of local weather change and sea stage rises. No nation has ever needed to cope with this earlier than. The lack of a nation as a result of local weather change is a wholly new drawback.
Tuvalu wanted assist with a plan to avoid wasting the sovereignty of their nation, giving the federal government an ongoing framework and central entity from which Tuvalu can proceed to speak and serve their individuals—even when they’re displaced.
Additionally they wanted to make use of that plan to seize the eye of governments and other people throughout the globe, speaking the pressing want for local weather motion. Minister Kofe’s scheduled tackle at COP27 [the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference] offered the proper alternative to serve Tuvalu’s twin goals of being acknowledged as a digital nation, whereas additionally giving a vital wake-up name to the world.
