Remarks by Singapore's Ambassador for Climate Action at Beat the Heat and Global Cooling Watch

11 NOV 2025

REMARKS BY SINGAPORE’S AMBASSADOR FOR CLIMATE ACTION AT BEAT THE HEAT AND GLOBAL COOLING WATCH REPORT LAUNCH, BELÉM, BRAZIL, 11 NOVEMBER 2025

Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen

I commend Brazil and UNEP for launching this initiative to strengthen heat resilience and the Global Cooling Watch report.

Heat is not just a local nuisance. With global temperatures continuing to rise, it is a systemic risk with global consequences. According to IPCC AR6, about 1 billion people in South and Southeast Asia could be affected by extreme heat.

Heat stress undermines public health, reduces labour productivity, strains electricity systems at times of peak demand, compromises food storage and transport, and can amplify humanitarian pressures that ripple across regions.

As a highly urbanised city-state in the tropics, Singapore takes a serious view of these risks. By 2100, temperatures in Singapore are expected to exceed 35 degrees Celsius almost every day.

We are ramping up our heat resilience.

  • We are investing in robust climate projections to better understand the risks posed by extreme heat.

  • We have formulated national heatwave response plans for both the general public and specific groups which are more vulnerable to heat stress.

  • We are developing innovative solutions such as cool paint for buildings and cooling vests for outdoor work.

  • We are taking a regional perspective to enhance our collective capacity for a heat resilient Southeast Asia.

We look forward to contribute to global efforts to strengthen heat resilience by sharing our knowledge and capabilities as well as learning from the experience of others.

Beat the Heat is precisely the vehicle the world needs: a mechanism to turn pledges into implementation, to de-risk investment, and to diffuse scalable solutions across countries.

Minister Grace Fu will set out more details on 18 November at the Global Cooling Pledge Ministerial Roundtable on how we can deepen collaboration in heat resilience.

Thank you to Brazil and UNEP for reminding us that:

  • tackling heat is not optional — it is a necessity;

  • it is not a local issue, it is a shared responsibility.

Let us pool our expertise, strengthen our tools, and scale our solutions through deeper partnerships for a more climate-resilient world.