Engagement at UN climate conference remains urgent despite countries’ competing priorities: Grace Fu

SINGAPORE – Global climate action remains urgent as the transition away from fossil fuels for countries “will be as difficult, if not more difficult, than before”, said Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu.

“Energy security is real, and it is becoming even more so on a daily basis, impacting people in a very real and concrete way. You are already seeing that countries are running out of fuel, their truckers are queuing up, they are unhappy, they are taking their unhappiness to the street.

“On the other hand, you also see that the fiscal ability of developed countries is also waning because of their attention towards defence and other priorities,” she told the media on Nov 5, ahead of the 31st UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP31).

Nearly 200 countries will attend the annual summit, where governments are set to negotiate their joint efforts to tackle climate change.

Taking place in Turkey over two weeks from Nov 9, COP31 comes in the wake of recent climate-related disasters like the floods in Nepal, and amid geopolitical headwinds like the Middle East conflict and other implications like rising costs of living.

“The world is more fragmented than before… Governments around the world are very focused on the here and now, as you see social unrest unveiling in many countries, worried about inflation… (and) other issues such as jobs and security,” said Fu, who will represent Singapore at the summit.

Despite these challenges, she stressed that it is important that the attention of global political leaders is drawn on climate action for COP31.

“The world needs all of us to show that COP is important, and (by) being there, bringing in (with us) a delegation of businesses, policymakers and university researchers, we hope that we are able to contribute meaningfully and impactfully, so that COP31 continues to be the multilateral platform for all of us,” she said.

“We would like to see that we can bring energy to global climate talks.”

Recent climate calamities in countries like Nepal have further reiterated the need to combat impacts of climate change, she noted.

On Aug 26, Nepal was hit by glacial floods which claimed about 1,500 lives, affected at least 80,000 people, and destroyed homes, schools and infrastructure like hydropower facilities.

“It is not going to be easy, but (it is) much better for us to go head-on in the meeting… than (have) people being disinterested.”

Regarding Singapore’s priorities at COP31, Fu said that it is important for the country to be in the negotiation room and participate fully in discussions on topics like adaptation.

Adaptation refers to actions that can deal with the damage caused by climate change. The other prong of climate action is mitigation, which tackles human-driven climate change by absorbing or limiting the production of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

“I think the oceans will be getting their attention this time round because we have seen how sea level rise has impacted many of our constituents,” said Fu, noting how high tides have caused disruptions to livelihoods and loss of properties.

Island states, such as Singapore and the Pacific islands, are extremely vulnerable to impacts of climate change like rising sea levels.

Australia, which will be leading negotiations at COP31, had hoped to host the conference partly to focus on elevating the concerns of the Pacific, one of the world’s most climate-exposed regions.

Fu said: “For too long we have focused on mitigation. I think it is now for us to bring the adaptation elements to all our strategies. We want to contribute to the knowledge development.”

For instance, Singapore wants to help shape how adaptation indicators are finalised and implemented as the country ultimately has to adopt them.

At COP30 in Brazil in 2025, a total of 59 adaptation indicators were adopted to help countries determine how they should adapt to climate change, and how to measure progress in these areas.

Technical work to operationalise the adaptation indicators has yet to be completed.

“Ultimately, having progress in global adaptation is important for us because we see that as a basis for discussion on the finance side because no discussion on financing… can proceed without a comprehensive and detailed adaptation plan at the national level. They are all interrelated,” Fu said.

Climate finance will also remain a key issue at the conference as developing countries will seek more clarity on how developed countries will meet the finance targets agreed at previous COPs and the delivery of the funds.

Under the Paris Agreement, developed countries are obligated to provide climate finance for developing countries. Developments in climate finance include countries calling for efforts to at least triple adaptation finance by 2035 at COP30.

Climate finance can help poorer nations shift away from fossil fuel energy sources towards cleaner options such as renewable energy, or do more on climate adaptation, like investing in early warning systems.

Singapore hopes to contribute on this front, said Fu. Although the country, which is classified by the UN as a developing country, is not obliged to contribute to climate finance, it has helped to channel funds into climate-friendly initiatives in other countries from various sources and in different ways.

“We want to be there to also show that there are countries that are working on voluntary kind of climate finance contribution,” she said.

One of the ways is Singapore’s national blended finance initiative Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P), which taps public or philanthropic capital to attract risk-averse private capital, which holds most of the world’s wealth.

FAST-P has so far raised US$1.14 billion (S$1.5 billion) for various green energy projects in the South-east Asian region, including battery storage, solar plants and improved power grids to help cleaner sources of electricity gradually replace coal.

Such blended finance initiatives could also potentially bring in funds to finance adaptation projects, Fu said.

Carbon markets can also direct funds to green projects in renewable energy, nature restoration and other areas.

To date, Singapore has signed 12 deals to buy carbon credits from countries in Asia, Africa and South America, paving the way for the Republic to purchase credits from foreign projects that absorb or limit carbon emissions to offset its carbon footprint.

These have yet to be translated into a supply of carbon credits. While six of these agreements have been fully operationalised, project developers still have to submit eligible carbon credit projects for authorisation.

Fu said she hopes to see the first transfer of carbon credits take place in 2027 but realising this will also hinge on the host country as well as the project developers, among others.

She added that she hopes to announce more carbon market agreements at COP31.

Carbon credit projects typically take a few years to develop, meet eligibility requirements and generate authorised credits, so supply will build up gradually rather than become available all at once.

Currently, around 70 projects are being assessed.

Developing carbon markets is among the avenues for Singapore to decarbonise, regardless of the state of progress in the ASEAN Power Grid, said Fu.

“In many ways, we will try to move along on the ASEAN Power Grid because we firmly believe that it is good for energy security, it is good for decarbonisation,” she said.

The ASEAN Power Grid is an interconnected grid that will allow countries in the region to trade electricity freely with one another.

Initiatives like FAST-P that can direct funds to projects that help South-east Asian countries invest in renewable energy infrastructure can also help to lay the groundwork for the regional grid, Fu said.

What would be a good outcome for COP31? Progress in electrification would be one, Fu said, as it is tangible and achievable to cut emissions.

COP31 president Turkey has set an electrification target for countries to agree on at the conference – to increase the share of electricity in global energy demand from 20% currently to 35% by 2035 through electrification.

“Electrification goal is something that we are working towards, and we have a good chance of making progress on that,” Fu said. “We are still looking at it.”

She hopes to see countries fully engaged at the negotiations, even for difficult issues.

“Engagements, exchanges will lead to better understanding. To me, engagement is more important than, say, an outcome that is of less relevance. The more we are able to engage on important issues, the better it is.

“The biggest risk to climate action is that governments turn away from it because they just have too many other priorities,” she said.

COP31 will be the first UN Climate Change Conference since the US, under President Donald Trump, formally withdrew from the Paris Agreement in January.

Fu was also asked whether the US midterm elections results on Nov 3, which saw the Democratic Party rout Trump’s Republicans, would affect the country’s climate policies.

It is “too early to tell”, she said, adding that the US has continued to participate in climate action through other ways, such as their businesses supporting climate technology and funding.

“We would really like to see perhaps more positive momentum coming from these midterm results and hope that perhaps more states will pay attention (to) climate action,” she said.

She hopes that the spotlight at COP31 will turn to countries already bearing the brunt of climate change.

While solutions may take several COPs to develop, each conference can build on the previous one to build understanding and mobilise partners willing to invest time and resources, she said.

“That is how we can move from one COP to another so that we can arrive at a time when the world has a solution for communities in these circumstances.”