• Grace Fu leads climate policy in Southeast Asia through a business-driven and target-based progress of the SG Green Plan 
• Despite her pioneering effort to consolidate a climate-resilient future, unequal distribution of environmental benefits raises criticism
• Grace Fu’s upbringing and private-driven career helps her identify the opportunities of securing adaptability against extreme weather events
• The intersections between green infrastructure and labor concerns brings attention to the ethical concerns of construction practices in Singapore

Why is Grace Fu’s heat level HOT?

Answer: Grace Fu advances Singapore’s climate resilience goals through infrastructure adaptation policies, anticipating rising sea levels and flash floods.

Grace Fu’s heat level rises due to her technocratic efficiency, international credibility, and alternative take on facing climate change by accelerating infrastructural resilience under the SG Green Plan 2030. This plan consists of five key pillars to achieve Singapore’s sustainable goals: city in nature, energy reset, green economy, resilient future, and sustainable living. 

Singapore is expected to see sea level rise by up to 1.15 meters by 2100 and has experienced a 25% increase in annual rainfall since the 1980s. As the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment in Singapore, she has embedded climate adaptation into economic growth and welfare provisions. Her policies have increased civic participation, most notably through the launch of the Eco Stewardship Programme, which integrates climate education and action into schools. 

As well as contributing to long-term resilience when it comes to facing the threat of rising sea levels and flooding, two of the city-state’s biggest challenges are amplified by climate change. To build resilience, the government has committed to investing more than S$100 billion over the next 100 years to coastal and flood protection; nearly 20 times the annual budget of Singapore’s Ministry of Sustainability and Environment, demonstrating the severity of these threats. 

Under her leadership since 2020 Singapore has adopted a source pathway receptor model to redesign the urban drainage systems and mitigate flood risks. This technological approach includes the development of detention tanks, underground reservoirs, and smart water management systems. These new additions to the country’s efforts do not only help to react to floods but also anticipate climate shocks, in line with the Green Plan’s emphasis on infrastructure that can “anticipate, absorb, adapt, and recover.”

Thanks to Fu, the Coastal Inland Flood Protection Framework was created prioritizing high-risk zones like the East Coast and Jurong Island, two zones which are highly vulnerable to storm surges and sea level rise. These regions are now sites where nature based solutions such as mangrove replanting, salt marsh restoration, vegetated seawalls, and tidal wetland have been implemented alongside integrated water barriers. Evidence of Fu’s impact on climate leadership and proactive urban climate adaptation. 

Most importantly, what has helped Fu in achieving a heat level of HOT is that she faces no institutional veto players due to Singapore’s illiberal democracy, a system where elections are held, but opposition power and individual freedoms are limited. This centralized government allows ministers like Fu to advance ambitious goals without major political pushback. 

What is changing Grace Fu’s heat level?

Answer: Grace Fu’s progress towards the SG Green Plan raises public scrutiny over who is benefiting from these policies. 

Despite her success, Fu faces controversies over the distribution of infrastructure resilience efforts across Singapore. Citizens have argued that the areas in Singapore which have experienced renovations in order to protect from floods and greening are typically found in areas that attract tourists like Marina Bay. For instance, in 2010, the Marina Barrage project was completed, which cost around S$226 million to regulate seawater flow, prevent flooding, and supply fresh water.  

Meanwhile, low-income zones like Jalan Besar and Bedok North are exposed to the effects of inland flooding and are seeing slower progress towards renovation. This selective approach has led to criticism of Fu by voters if the policy for resilient infrastructure is equitable or just trying to increase tourist branding with urban beautification. 

Her recent call for Singaporeans to “check the weather” and take personal responsibility for climate adaptation in a panel discussion created backlash, especially from civilians who live in older housing blocks with poor drainage systems. For these citizens, adaptation is not about behavior it is about access to public protection and infrastructure. These instances reveal a disconnect between Fu’s progress the realities people face in the country, ultimately bringing her heat level down. 

Similarly, Fu’s work on the carbon tax policy faced judgment for low initial rates and extensive rebates, reducing revenue. The continuous use of international carbon credits created debate over environmental integrity. In the food policy, 30 by 30 promotes high-tech farming, but faces challenges in balancing innovation with sustainability and limited local market capacity. 

Nevertheless, Fu’s motivation and climate action are unquestionable. She has been a key factor in strengthening Singapore’s climate governance, from establishing long-term frameworks to progressively increasing the first carbon tax in South-East Asia. Her approach continues to win praise in government and international circles. She is positioning Singapore as a regional model of climate adaptation in hopes that countries facing similar issues will follow Singapore’s progress. 

What is driving Grace Fu?

Answer: Fu’s elite background and private sector experience drive her to protect Singapore from the economically devastating consequences of climate change. 

Fu was nurtured alongside Singapore’s founding generation, as her father, James Fu, was Lee Kuan Yew’s press secretary from 1972 to 1993. From Nayang’s High School, where her grandma was the longest-serving principal, Grace Fu ticked all the boxes of Singapore’s elites, graduating from the National University of Singapore, with a Bachelor of Accountancy in 1985 and a Master a Business Administration in 1991. 

Fu has been deeply embedded in Singapore’s political and technocratic elite since her childhood. Before she became a minister, her father, James Fu, was the press secretary to Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founding Prime Minister. Grace Fu has expectations to live up to. Her familial legacy and elite background pushed Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to bring her into politics in 2006. 

Initially working as an accountant at the Overseas Union Bank, she then joined the Haw Par Group. In 1995, she joined the Port of Singapore Authority (PSA) Corporation, the company overseeing Singapore’s maritime trade activities. At the heart of Singapore’s economy, PSA represents the world’s largest transhipment hub, contributing indirectly to 7% of Singapore’s GDP and employing over 170,000 people. In 2003, she was appointed as CEO of South-East Asia and Japan, running the largest container port operations in the world at the time. 

Her success at PSA shaped her perspective on how vulnerable Singapore is to both climate change and trade disruptions.  As Minister for Sustainability, she can now tackle these issues at their roots to ensure the sustainable development of the Singapore economy. 

What does this mean for you?

Answer: Labor conditions associated with the adaptation of climate-vulnerable infrastructure spark controversy in Singapore.

Singapore isn’t only affected by the rise in sea levels. The Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect also threatens the city-state. It occurs when air temperatures are higher in a city than in its surrounding countryside. Singapore’s highly urbanized and densely populated territory, with 7,851 people per square kilometre for a 6 million population, will face decreased Outdoor Thermal Comfort (OTC) levels as climate change progresses. 

While heavy rainfalls and sea level rises provoke both inland and coastal floods, making citizens and businesses vulnerable, heatwaves threaten the ageing population, as 20% of the population is aged above 65. Increased humidity levels also foster the spread of diseases such as dengue or Zika, and wildfires in neighbouring countries degrade air quality on the island. Similarly, droughts decrease Singapore’s ability to supply sufficient drinkable water.

Adapting the climate-vulnerable infrastructure is crucial to tackling the potentially devastating effects of climate change. However, the construction industry struggles with ethical concerns. Non-resident foreign low-skilled workers make up the majority of the construction workforce, and are exploited, forced labor and domestic abuse. In 2025, a sinkhole appeared in Tanjong Katong and endangered drivers. Migrant workers were the first to rescue harmed citizens after the incident. While Grace Fu publicly thanked them for their courage, criticism sparked over their labor conditions. 

Combining climate change mitigation and raising labor standards should be the objective of the Singaporean authorities. Singapore will have to adapt further to mitigate urban heat effects. It already stands as a global leader in urban heat governance. The city-state should further amplify two strategies: greening the built environment, which it already does with the SkyRise Greenery initiative, and adopting emerging Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs) such as mangroves, whose benefits align with biodiversity, innovation, welfare, and economic growth.

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.

Authors: Pilar Gonzalez & Gaspard Brabant

Editor: Ángel Rodríguez Moreno

Project Leads: Roxane de Bergevin & Stefani Obradovic