ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026 - Ms Grace Fu

The Honorable Mr. Al Gore, Chairman of The Climate Reality Project

Ladies and gentlemen,

1. Good morning. It is my pleasure to join all of you at the opening of AT ONE IMPACT WEEK 2026.

2. AT ONE IMPACT WEEK brings together an extraordinary mix of leaders from philanthropy, business, finance, government, and civil society. What makes this gathering unique is that it is far more than just a platform for discussion. It is a platform that drives action.

3. I had a brief conversation with Mr. Tsao earlier. He said we want people here to drive action, to drive partnership, to link up, to find complementarity, and to work together. And this is how we should be, because none of us have the monopoly to capital, technology, ideas, and solution. Each one of us has our strength, and if we are able to bring our strengths together, we can achieve so much more.

4. So collectively, we shape investment decisions, business priorities, and community outcomes. As climate risks become more pronounced, our collective leadership will direct capital, innovation and expertise towards solutions that can reduce emissions and strengthen resilience.

Building resilience against the impacts of climate change

5. Our conversations surrounding climate change has been evolving. For many years, the focus has been on mitigation: reducing emissions, accelerating the energy transition, and keeping global warming within limits.

6. The world must continue to reduce emissions decisively. Yet even as we do so, we are not doing as quickly as before. We are facing headwinds. Even as we continue to push on for emissions reductions, we are already seeing the impacts of climate change on communities, on economies, and businesses. And in just recent months, there are so many tragic events that are reminding us constantly that the planet is under pressure. We have seen severe floods causing significant loss of lives and properties, displaced entire communities, and disrupted livelihoods across Asia. In Europe, prolonged heatwaves and droughts have caused deaths, reduced productivity and strained vital water and energy resources. They are a stark reminder that climate change is not a future challenge, but a present reality.

7. We can't just think about emissions reduction, which is just one aspect of climate action. We need to think about resilience and adaptation as well.

8. As the world continues to warm, the risks to lives, livelihoods and economies will only intensify:

   1. For investors, climate risks are increasingly influencing asset valuations, insurance costs, and long-term portfolio resilience.

   2. For businesses, climate risks are affecting supply chains, operations, infrastructure, and workforce productivity.

   3. For governments, the challenge is to ensure that critical infrastructure and public systems remain reliable under increasingly extreme conditions. Our way of putting love into infrastructure is to make sure that everyone in the population is taken care of - public health, electricity, water, sanitation. Not only for those that can afford, but for everyone.

   4. And for communities, climate risks threaten our homes, livelihoods, and well-being, particularly for vulnerable groups amongst us.

9. And so it is imperative that we collectively strengthen our resilience to adapt to a changing climate.

Developing Singapore’s first National Adaptation Plan with Singaporeans

10. Singapore is developing our first National Adaptation Plan, our long-term strategy to prepare Singaporeans for the impacts of climate change. It will help us take stock of existing efforts, identify key climate risks, and chart the way forward for our current and future generations.

11. Importantly, the National Adaptation Plan is being developed as a whole-of-nation effort. It's not just the Government alone, but the Government with the people. Climate resilience cannot be built by governments alone. It requires businesses embedding climate risks into strategy, investors and philanthropies supporting adaptation solutions and innovation, communities driving local action, and individuals playing their part.

12. We have stepped up engagements with diverse groups of stakeholders and will continue to do so to better galvanise collective action and ownership for adaptation.

Adaptation as a strategic and economic opportunity

13. Adaptation will create demand for capital and technology in areas such as heat resilience, climate-resilient infrastructure, flood protection, water security, food resilience, climate analytics, and nature-based solutions.

14. But at the same time, the world is not investing enough in adaptation. Closing the finance gap will require more than public finance alone, because public finance is under stress. And that is why Singapore announced the Financing Asia’s Transition Partnership (FAST-P) at COP28. FAST-P is a blended finance initiative that brings together public, private and philanthropic capital to de-risk and help finance green transition projects in Asia. With an ambition to mobilise up to US$5 billion, FAST-P helps channel financing towards green and transition projects that may otherwise struggle to attract investment, thereby accelerating the region’s sustainable development.

15. FAST-P is translating this ambition into investment.

    1. The Green Investments Partnership, one of the FAST-P pillars, has raised US$800 million and committed US$128 million across four sustainable infrastructure investments in South and Southeast Asia.

    2. Another FAST-P pillar, the Energy Transition Acceleration Finance Partnership, for energy transition, has raised US$250 million at first close for its displacement strategy and made an inaugural US$60 million investment supporting renewable energy and battery storage in South Asia.

    3. While FAST-P aimed mainly at emission-reducing projects, these projects could have adaptation co-benefits. Investors and asset owners have an important role in directing capital towards adaptation solutions that protect lives, livelihoods, and economies.

16. Philanthropies are uniquely positioned to accelerate climate adaptation.

    1. With patient capital, extensive networks and a long-term horizon, we can support innovation, de-risk emerging solutions and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities.

    2. Beyond funding, we can also convene partners across sectors and geographies and connect innovators with the communities who need them most.

    3. In doing so, we can help signal to the wider investment community that adaptation is a credible, valuable, and necessary foundation for economic development.

18. We may have been ignorant in the past about the impact of industrialisation on the planet and on the climate, but we can no longer hide under that excuse. So, for all new investments, businesses, projects, we will have to look at its whole impact.

19. Local communities are at the core of our focus in adaptation. Their local knowledge, networks and lived experiences are essential in shaping solutions. By empowering communities and supporting local initiatives, we build resilience that is not only effective, but also inclusive and enduring.

20. And the Singapore Government fully believes in getting local communities involved. For example, we are active in developing carbon credits as real, credible, tangible solutions in decarbonisation for Singapore. In all our carbon credits projects, we have dedicated 5% of the proceeds to local governments, to enable them to find the right adaptation solutions. This is also to address the need for capital at the local level, where access to capital and technology is a struggle. And we’re empowering local communities with every carbon credit project that we do.

A Call for Collective Action

21. Over the course of AT ONE IMPACT WEEK, I encourage everyone to think beyond individual projects and organisations. Seize this opportunity to form new partnerships, challenge assumptions, and consider how adaptation can be embedded into the decisions we make every day.

22. If we act early, invest wisely, with love in our infrastructure and work together, we can ensure that resilience remains one of our greatest strengths in an increasingly uncertain world.

23. Thank you.