Ioane Teitiota, a Kiribati citizen, sought asylum in New Zealand because sea-level rise had made his home unliveable. In 2020 the UN Human Rights Committee did not uphold his own complaint, finding the risk not sufficiently imminent, but articulated a general principle: where climate impacts in the country of origin threaten the right to life, a state may not remove a person there. It was the first time an international human rights body recognised that climate risk can trigger a non-refoulement obligation.

In 2014 the government purchased around 20 km² on Vanua Levu in Fiji, stating the purpose as near-term food security and preserving an option should much of the territory become uninhabitable. The land creates no settlement right for foreigners and is not a second citizenship for I-Kiribati either.

Rather than waiting for emergency evacuation, Kiribati set out to train its people in skills neighbouring countries recognise, so they may leave as skilled workers rather than as refugees. How a person leaves their country determines how they are treated in the country they reach.

Banaba is a Kiribati island with very large phosphate deposits, and mining from the early twentieth century destroyed most of its surface. In 1945 the Banabans were moved to Rabi Island in Fiji, where the community still lives. They retain Kiribati citizenship while living permanently on Fijian soil — one of very few real examples of a community resettled across borders while keeping its original nationality.

Both were built on phosphate revenue in the same era. Kiribati's RERF, established in 1956, still stands; Nauru's dissipated. The difference lies in withdrawal discipline and governance, not luck or scale. In fairness, the RERF has also been drawn down substantially across difficult budget years.

No. Citizenship is by descent and naturalisation for foreigners is very restricted. If anyone offers Kiribati citizenship by investment, or ties it to access to Australia, New Zealand or Fiji, stop — no such programme exists.

So the whole country would share one day; previously its two halves were a day apart because the territory straddles the International Date Line. A side effect is that Kiribati became the first place on earth to see each new day. Unlike Samoa in 2011, which adjusted to match its trading partners, Kiribati adjusted to match itself.

Yes, severely. Most land stands less than three metres above sea level; king tides flood, groundwater salinises and coastal erosion is a daily reality rather than a future scenario. This is the risk group shared with Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and the Maldives.