Grace Fu named among Time’s 100 most influential climate leaders of 2025

SINGAPORE – Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu has made it onto the Time100 Climate 2025 list, which highlights the most influential leaders driving business climate action.

Ms Fu, who is also Minister-in-charge of Trade Relations, was recognised for her role in overseeing key climate adaptation initiatives such as coastal protection, water resilience and food security.

She was named on the list published on Oct 30 along with others like Pope Leo XIV, Suriname President Jennifer Geerlings-Simons and actor Samuel L. Jackson, in the third edition of the annual list by New York-based magazine Time.

The list lauds decision-makers, executives, researchers and innovators who have unlocked funding and resources needed for climate action, despite a year beleaguered by geopolitical conflicts and trade tensions.

It comes less than two weeks before the COP30 UN talks in Brazil, where governments of nearly 200 countries will discuss how to limit climate change and prepare for its impacts.

In previous iterations of

the climate conference,

Ms Fu had co-facilitated high-stakes ministerial talks that have paved the way for more ambitious targets to limit planet-warming greenhouse gases and laid the foundation for international carbon markets.

Notably, she helped global negotiations reach a consensus on carbon credit trading in COP meetings held in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku, Egypt, and Glasgow.

Acknowledging the setbacks of recent times, Ms Fu told Time that there is still hope for the future of the planet as positive developments have continued despite the challenges.

She cited the

increasing affordability of renewable energy,

innovations to tackle climate challenges like rising sea levels and heat, as well as worldwide climate activism driven by youth.

In an Oct 31 Facebook post, Ms Fu credited the recognition by Time to the dedicated officers across ministries and government agencies, who work tirelessly every day to advance Singapore’s climate agenda.

“I will continue to be a spokesperson, championing the work that so many have poured their hearts into. Their collective actions have put Singapore on the map,” she said.

She called on countries to tackle climate change by reducing or preventing the emission of greenhouse gases as well as taking action to adapt to climate change.

These issues are slated to be high on the agenda at COP30, with many countries having

missed the deadline

for submitting their climate targets for 2035.

The Time list was announced after the news magazine’s editors spent months reviewing candidates from across sectors, favouring those who had taken tangible recent action.

Pope Leo XIV was recognised for picking up from where his predecessor left off on the climate front by turning a field into a solar farm, to make Vatican City the world’s first carbon-neutral state.

Dr Geerlings-Simons, a physician by training, pledged in September to protect 90 per cent of forests in Suriname, which has the world’s highest share of forest cover. This means the country absorbs more carbon dioxide than it emits.

Meanwhile, Jackson was acknowledged for a 60-second ad promoting offshore wind farms by a Swedish power company, which built a project visible from US President Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland.

The video, which reached 600 million viewers within days of its release, was seen as a rejoinder to Mr Trump, who objected to their construction next to his golf course, calling them “monsters”.