(March 4): Singapore’s government and businesses must prepare to handle accelerating risks posed by climate change, according to the country’s environment minister.
Challenges to economic and geopolitical stability, including the crisis in the Middle East, are clouding the world’s focus on climate protections and mean there’s a more urgent need to bolster resilience, Singapore’s Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu said during a budget debate in parliament.
“Major emitters may backslide on their climate obligations as they grapple with the global tensions on security, energy, trade and investments,” Fu said. “In such uncertain times, the environment becomes an inevitable casualty, and our planet will face the impacts of climate change more severely — and sooner.”
To avoid larger losses and reassure investors, companies need to do more to assess risks, protect workers and infrastructure, diversify suppliers and insure against climate hazards, she said.
“Businesses must be able to ride through extreme weather events and resume operations as quickly as possible,” Fu said at the Tuesday debate. “Those who innovate and adapt will thrive in the future.”
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Singapore is managing rising sea levels that are forecast to threaten some of the city’s most prized real estate, and higher temperatures that are projected to trigger annual productivity losses of S$2.2 billion (US$1.7 billion) by 2035. The wider Southeast Asia region also faces an accelerating threat from climate change-fuelled disasters, underlined by multi-billion losses during a series of deadly floods in late 2025.
The country has designated 2026 as “the year of climate adaptation,” and will commence work on a national plan covering resilience to heat, floods and potential shortages of water and food. The plan will also help businesses deal with damaged infrastructure, reduced productivity and supply chain disruptions.
Singapore’s first National Adaptation Plan will be published next year. Under the Paris Agreement, countries were encouraged to submit a strategy to the United Nations as early as 2015, though only 75 countries have filed so far.
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Focus is increasing on climate adaptation as extreme weather losses mount and efforts to mitigate climate change wane, particularly as the US pulls back under President Donald Trump. Even so, adaptation has so far struggled to attract private sector financing. Annual investment required to maintain climate resilience in Asia is estimated at US$431 billion, and the financing gap in Southeast Asia is close to 90%, according to the Climate Policy Initiative.
Singapore, which is preparing to spend as much as S$100 billion in the coming decades on the effects of global warming, has set aside S$10 billion for a flood protection fund and will this week debate proposed new coastal protection policies.
The nation will also launch a S$40 million research initiative to examine heat impacts and resilience, and is separately seeking to improve its climate monitoring and forecasting capabilities.
Uploaded by Magessan Varatharaja
