It is timely for Singapore to work on climate adaptation

SINGAPORE – On Feb 11, Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary said Singapore

has to rebalance its priorities and put more weight on adapting to climate impacts

, as geopolitics has put a damper on efforts to reduce carbon emissions.

In my view, this focus on adaptation is timely for a city-state exposed to climate change impacts such as rising temperatures and sea levels.

His comments come at a time when global efforts to tackle the root cause of climate change – fossil fuel use – are coming under attack from political rhetoric and economic concerns, giving rise to fears that climate change impacts will escalate.

The earth has already warmed by around 1.3 deg C since pre-industrial times and locked-in global warming has been driving disasters from powerful cyclones to heatwaves.

Climate threats have been inching closer to Singapore in recent years. From temperatures soaring

to 37 deg C in May 2023

and some episodes of coastal flooding when heavy rain coincided with high tides, the Republic has experienced a taste of extreme weather.

Hazy conditions could also become a mainstay in Singapore in a world on fire. Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu told Parliament on Feb 12 that climate change

will bring about drier conditions

and higher temperatures that could fuel potential wildfires in the region, bringing haze to Singapore.

Both adaptation and mitigation, or cutting emissions, are equally important in the effort to tackle climate change.

If solutions to reduce emissions are the “antidote” for long-term global heating, then adaptation serves as a “vaccine” to protect people and places from harsher consequences of exposure to extreme heat, floods and food crises.

This is especially relevant for Singapore for a few reasons.

First, Singapore, being low-lying and exposed to tropical heat all year, is not sheltered from climate risks. This is something that the private sector is increasingly concerned with.

For example, if companies were to delay installing flood and coastal defences, insurers may impose high premiums, forcing business costs to go up in the long run.

In a recent study, insurance broker Willis Towers Watson found that losses linked to floods in South-east Asia

may grow by as much as 1,000 per cent

in the coming years.

Flooding across the region may result in economic losses well above US$10 billion (S$12.68 billion), compared with the US$1 billion to US$2 billion range typical of major regional flood events over the past decade, said the report published in January.

Under

a proposed law tabled in Parliament

in early February, government agencies and private companies that occupy land along Singapore’s shorelines have to implement measures to shield their coastal areas from rising seas, or face a fine and jail term.

Waterfront companies are understandably

concerned about

the costs

of implementing coastal defences.

Yet, even without such a law, experts have cautioned that if protection measures are not undertaken in advance, insurance premiums will soar, further affecting business costs in the future.

Mr Lee Adam Harryman, head of the Climate Resilience Studio at CPG Consultants, said insurance providers are increasingly factoring flood and coastal risk into their assessments.

He added: “Over time, assets located in high-risk areas may face rising premiums, or more limited insurance options.

“In many ways, insurance considerations may play the role of a quiet driver of climate adaptation, even if indirectly.”

Two, home-grown solutions to prevent coastal floods and heat illnesses can also bring about economic opportunities for the country.

Dr Janil said at the Feb 11 dialogue that even while addressing climate change impacts, there is scope for the country to reap economic value from them, citing Singapore’s work in exporting water technologies.

Two reports released in mid-2025 highlighted the future investment potential of adaptation solutions in the trillions, challenging the notion that reducing climate impacts cannot bring revenue.

One of them,

by global management consultancy BCG and Singapore’s investment firm Temasek,

showed that expenditure for climate adaptation and resilience is projected to rise to between US$500 billion and US$1.3 trillion a year by 2030.

Hazard warning systems, flood barriers and emergency medical services were among the solutions identified in a new report as having the most investment potential over the next five years.

Experts have previously told The Straits Times that home-grown coastal and flood defences can be exported to vulnerable areas in South-east Asia.

Singapore’s expertise in heat research could also be tapped globally. In 2025, the NUS Heat Resilience and Performance Centre teamed up with Saudi Arabia’s occupational safety and health body to develop strategies to protect workers from increasing heat risks in the kingdom.

Singapore has long valued the importance of climate adaptation.

In 2019, then Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in his National Day Rally speech that Singapore’s climate change defences

were as existential for the country as its armed forces

.

“These are life and death matters. Everything else must bend at the knee to safeguard the existence of our island nation,” he said then.

But one area we could do better in is to help people understand that climate adaptation also requires action on their part.

This bottom-up, community resilience is crucial because climate impacts are uneven and no one should be left behind. Extreme heat, for one, can pose a greater danger to the elderly and those who are bedridden.

While

national heatwave response plans

can be put in place by the Government, it will take family, friends and neighbours to ensure that vulnerable people can get to a cooling station.

Unlike neighbouring countries, Singapore has not yet faced severe climate impacts, so climate change can feel like a distant concern for many. And this sentiment could slow the urgency of preparing for climate shocks.

The problem is not ignorance, apathy or a lack of moral concern, observed professorial research fellow Harvey Neo from the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

At a conference in February, Dr Neo said the way climate impacts are framed could be preventing the masses from taking action. Climate impacts are often described as happening years later from 2050, elsewhere in the Arctic and deep rainforest, or at a larger scale.

“These framings, while scientifically accurate, unintentionally generate psychological escape routes. Together, they form what I call a ‘Pandora’s box of excuses’ that allows people to care abstractly while postponing action indefinitely,” said Dr Neo.

Singapore is preparing its inaugural national adaptation plan, slated for publication in 2027.

It will serve as a blueprint charting the key measures that the Republic has to undertake to ward off the worst impacts on our shores.

Things to watch include how these measures will be funded, and how their effectiveness will be tracked.