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Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment
Speeches

YES Leaders Programme Cohort 3 Graduation Ceremony - Ms Grace Fu

10 July 2026

Remarks by Ms Grace Fu, Minister for Sustainability and the Environment, at the Youth for Environmental Sustainability (YES) Leaders Programme Cohort 3 Graduation Ceremony on 10 July 2026

  1. Good morning. I am very happy to join our YES Leaders, representatives from our Institutes of Higher Learning, and our valued YES Advisors today. My thanks also to The Kallang Group and CapitaLand for hosting us here at Kallang Wave Mall.

  2. Many of you know this mall for its iconic rock-climbing wall — currently Singapore’s tallest indoor climbing wall at 16 metres. A new 21-metre wall is also coming up as part of the mall’s renovation, and when completed, it will be one of Southeast Asia’s tallest indoor climbing walls.

  3. That climbing wall brings back a personal memory. One of the first activities I was asked to do as the newly minted MCCY Minister was to scale the height element at OBS Pulau Ubin — also about 21 metres. There was no rehearsal. I felt unprepared. But I remembered what I had learnt in my younger days from diving off a 10-metre platform: confidence often comes after we take the first step, not before.

  4. With practice, we go higher. With each attempt, we stretch our limits. Sustainability is much the same. The goals may look distant, but every journey begins with one step — and every generation has the chance to climb higher than the last.

YEAR OF CLIMATE ADAPTION — WHY RESILIENCE MATTERS

  1. Climate change is no longer a distant issue. We are already feeling it — hotter days, heavier rainfall, and more unpredictable weather. Around the world, communities are facing rising sea levels, floods, droughts, extreme heat, and disruptions to food and water supplies. For Singapore, these changes affect our health, our infrastructure, our biodiversity, and our quality of life.

  2. That is why 2026, the Year of Climate Adaptation, matters. It is a call for everyone — individuals, communities, and businesses — to act together for a more sustainable and climate-ready future.

"WE FIRST" IN ACTION — OUR YES LEADERS

  1. Our Cohort 3 YES Leaders show what this looks like in action. You turned ideas into practical solutions, tackled real environmental challenges, and brought others along with you. Your work reflects Singapore’s “We First” spirit — choosing the common good, and recognising that lasting progress happens when we move together.

GRADUATION — RECOGNISING COHORT 3

  1. Yiling and her team gave unwanted textiles a second life. They collected more than 15 kg of used clothing and linen from their school, the Brickland community, friends and family, and upcycled them into usable blankets. In doing so, they turned waste into warmth, and built a stronger “we-first” culture of shared responsibility.

  2. Sohana’s “Wear Your Waste” initiative is equally inspiring. She transformed post-consumer plastics and other unconventional waste into handcrafted wearable pieces. Even more meaningfully, her workshops included participants with special needs, showing that environmental action and social inclusion can — and should — go hand in hand.

  3. James tackled the challenge of recycling polypropylene lab plastics. By converting these materials into 3D printing filament, his project shows how specialised waste streams can be redirected into circular applications, with potential for further development and scaling.

  4. Three very different projects, but one shared commitment: to act, and to see it through. To every member of Cohort 3 — on behalf of NEA and MSE, I applaud you. You learnt, experimented, persisted, and delivered.

WELCOME — INCOMING COHORT & ANNOUNCEMENTS

  1. Even as we celebrate Cohort 3, we welcome our incoming YES Leaders. This year, we also welcome a new IHL to the YES family — the Singapore University of Technology and Design, or SUTD. We are glad to have you on board.

  2. We received 65 nominations this year — the highest ever, and more than 60 per cent higher than previous years. This tells us that many young Singaporeans want to be part of the solution.

  3. I am also pleased to welcome four new YES Advisors — Carlo, Ernest, Preston, and Shi Zhou. As past EcoFriend Award recipients, they bring experience in sustainable materials, circular economy solutions, food waste reduction, and arts-based environmental advocacy. Thank you for choosing to invest in the next generation of environmental leaders.

  4. To support stronger ideas and wider impact, the YES Leaders Programme project grants will increase by 20 per cent, from $5,000 to $6,000. I hope this encourages our next cohort to be bold in prototyping, ambitious in outreach, and grounded in community impact.

CONCLUSION

  1. To our graduating cohort — thank you for your dedication, your leadership, and your belief that young people can make a difference. To our incoming cohort — the challenges ahead are real, but so is your ability to shape the future. Do not wait until you feel fully ready. Start where you are, with what you have, and with the people around you.

  2. The YES Leaders Programme is more than a one-year journey. It is the beginning of a lifelong commitment — to the environment, to your communities, and to Singapore. Keep climbing. Keep bringing others with you. And together, let us build a greener, more resilient Singapore.

  3. Thank you.