Singaporean Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu Hai Yien
Singapore and Climate Change
Carrying on the legacy of leaders in Singapore, Grace Fu’s stake is the survival of one of the most sophisticated societies in the world against an existential threat: climate change. The belief that the survival of the island is at stake is a recurring theme in the Singaporean narrative that has historically helped the city-state to adapt to challenges and innovate.
Singapore gained independence from the federation of Malaysia when it was expelled on 9 August 1965. Surrounded by Indonesia in the South and by Malaysia in the North, the island possessed scarce resources, no hinterland, covering 720 square kilometers and inhabited by 2 million people. Just emerging as a sovereign state, the island’s strategic position seemed fragile in the minds of the Singaporeans leaders. Lee Kuan Yew states ‘We were a Chinese island in a Malay sea. How could we survive […]?’
Singapore’s small population, featuring a Chinese majority, alongside Malay and Indians minorities, contrasted with Malaysia’s and Indonesia’s large populations of muslim-Malays. Before independence, tensions had arisen between different ethnicities and sparked racial riots in July and September 1964. On top of that, Sukarno had declared Konfrontasi against the Malaysian federation, opposing its merger, conducting military actions on its territory. Yew’s quote alluded to these difficulties as the existential threat driving policy alignment and development.
Eventually, economic disagreements between the Singaporean People’s Action Party (PAP), and the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) led to its break-away, leaving Singapore with reasonable grounds to feel threatened by its neighbours. The imminent menace to the island’s sovereignty pushed Singapore to embark on an unprecedented economic growth, while facing regional competition. Due to the inability to form a single-market with Malaysia, Singapore couldn’t develop import-substitution industrialization and opted for a subtle combination of state capitalism and foreign investment.
Singapore was then later described as a corporate state, acting as an entrepreneur, entering the market to create employment and generate profit by establishing statutory boards and wholly or partially state-owned companies. Government-linked enterprises (GLE) were highly profitable, and the state didn’t hesitate to close down loss-making firms. This economic environment built confidence to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs) from transnational corporations that specialised in petrochemicals, computer products, telecommunications services, among others. The government invested in infrastructures, providing well-planned industrial estates, equity participation in industries, fiscal incentives, and export promotion, which promoted political and economic stability, fostering the investor’s confidence in the system. As a result, the Singaporean GDP per capita skyrocketed, alongside growth rates, with an average of 9,76% per year between 1965 and 1985. Singapore achieved an economic miracle, similar to those of Taiwan, Hong Kong or South Korea, later referred to as the Asian dragons.
In the 21st century, climate change represents a different existential threat to Singapore. The city-state is vulnerable to sea-level rise, the increased occurrence and the intensity of climatic events, while possessing scarce resources and being dependent on trade. Before the year 2100, Singapore could witness a rise in sea levels by 0.23m to 1.15m depending on the lack of changes made to their carbon emissions. In an increase of +2ºC globally scenario, Singapore’s sea levels could rise up to 2m by 2150. This threatens its small, urbanized and densely populated territory (7,851 people per square kilometer for 6 million of inhabitants), as 30% of the country is located less than 5 meters above the sea level in its 300 km coastline.
On top of that, scientific reports predict that climate change will increase the ‘frequency and the intensity’ of extreme weather events. These include heatwaves, rainfalls but also droughts, pollution and wildfires. Heatwaves and rainfalls directly threaten the population, with the recurring threat of flooding, increase in humidity levels foster favorable conditions for the spread of diseases like dengue and zika, while wildfires in neighbouring countries would degrade air quality in Singapore and droughts could also hinder its ability to supply drinkable water.
Lastly, Singapore lacks natural resources, increasing its dependency on global trade. The island doesn’t possess any fossil fuels, or geostrategic metals and minerals such as lithium. Moreover, its ability to produce halieutic or agricultural resources is limited, as its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers between 1,000 to 1,500 square kilometres, and the island only dedicates 1% of its soil to agricultural use, thus limiting food production. Thus, Singapore depends on imports for everything, notably food and energy. An exposure that coupled with extreme weather events worsens the city-state’s vulnerability to trade disruptions.
Grace Fu and Climate Leadership
With all of these challenges in mind, Singapore knows how to adapt, and has created an opportunity out of this threat. Led by Grace Fu, the government launched the Singapore Green Plan 2030 in February 2021, in a joint effort alongside other ministries. It consists of five key pillars to achieve Singapore’s sustainable goals: city in nature, energy reset, green economy, resilient future, and sustainable living. The ‘City in nature’ pillar aims at adapting Singapore’s urbanism to future climatic conditions, while ‘Energy reset’ emphasizes renewable energy and sustainable transport. The ’Green Economy’ pillar attempts to seize opportunities arising from the climate transition, while the ‘Resilient Future’ tackles vulnerabilities such as food insecurity and flood threats. Finally, the ‘Sustainable Living’ pillar targets waste reduction and objectives related to educating young generations.
For Grace Fu, this plan is not solely the roadmap to Singapore’s sustainability, but it reflects Fu’s personal stakes. More specifically, her values, identity, history, and career, are closely linked to the success of the Green Plan. An inability to meet and implement its core policies like decarbonising the economy, improving their food security, and resilient infrastructures; would not only signal a problem in meeting its climate commitments, but also would symbolise a personal and political setback in Fu’s career and reputation as a climate leader.
In a city state aware of its vulnerability to current crises based on geography, economy, and the environment, the Green Plan is the country’s most ambitious policy framework yet to secure Singapore’s long term future. Grace Fu is directly linked with the framework’s success as she strongly advocates for it. If the plan were to be unsuccessful, Singapore would face irreversible environmental damage along with a heightened amount of scrutiny for Fu as one of the only women in Singapore’s upper political ranks. Research shows that women in leadership positions often have higher value on long term social welfare, inclusive governance, and sustainability. All of these aspects are reflected in Fu’s policy framing that calls towards collective responsibility and intergenerational justice.
For instance, in the Sustainable Living pillar of the Green Plan, an Eco Stewardship Programme aims to nurture Singaporeans to be ‘stewards of the environment’ by strengthening school curriculums about sustainability and reduce two-thirds of net carbon emissions from schools by 2030. This example reinforces the commitment by Grace Fu to create an inclusive and value driven environmental society. Her leadership style reflects the gender pressures she has faced by framing the Green Plan as a societal transformation that requires collaboration to be made by everyone in the country.
In addition, her ideological stake in the Green Plan is not only framed by her gendered experience, but also influenced by her early career in the private sector. In the past Grace Fu had a senior role at PSA International as previously mentioned. This role provided Fu with firsthand knowledge and experience on Singapore’s dependency on global trade and international supply chains. In PSA Fu worked in a logistics and data driven environment where optimization, cost management, and competitiveness were key. This past experience can be directly seen in her new political position and how she approaches policy.
The Green Plan is presented as a necessity of survival and creating independence within the country, such as domestic food resilience, energy efficiency, and creating a circular economy. In the Resilient Future pillar of the plan it commits to increasing local food production and creating new investments in water recycling (NEWater) and desalination to address water insecurity concerns driven by disputes with Malaysia over the Johor River. Moreover, Fu’s private sector background drives her mixed approach in technocracy and anthropocentric where the Green Plan explores distinct solutions like carbon capture and smart urban cooling as potential adaptation strategies.
Fu’s mixed approach is reinforced by her educational background making her trained to see issues through key performance indicators. This is manifested in the Green Plan as it places emphasis on measurable and time constrained goals. These examples demonstrate how the plan is designed to be monitored, benchmarked, enforced, and adapted based on the data collected. The analytical approach creates a clear straightforward plan that combines ethics and policy implementation to achieve the plan’s goals. Rather than just making the framework focus on civic moral duty, the plan can be turned into numbers to connect with all stakeholders through sustainability in the growth sector, creation of green jobs, and early decarbonization against long term costs. In the Green Economy Pillar of the plan Fu is able to create incentives over ideology and bring logic to her beliefs and actions.
Thus, the Green Plan 2030 crafted by Fu can be considered to be her contribution to Singapore’s legacy, reflecting the pragmatism and ambition that drove Singapore’s success since 1965 except in this case the challenge is not regional hostility, but environmental barriers.
IExRAIA Summer Research Program:
This article is an excerpt from a report on Grace Fu produced as part of an RAIA research program on climate leaders. For a full picture of Ruto’s climate leadership, including the sources, read the full report. This project was fully financed by IE University’s IE School of Politics, Economics and Global Affairs.
Author: Pilar Gonzalez & Gaspard Brabant
Editor: Ángel Rodríguez Moreno
Project Leads: Roxane de Bergevin & Stefani Obradovic
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