Remarks by Minister Desmond Lee at the NTU OneMillionTrees Tree Planting event

Aug 20, 2022

Professor Ling San, Deputy President and Provost, NTU
Ms Goh Swee Chen, Chairperson, NTU Board of Trustees
Mr Kenneth Er, CEO, NParks,
NTU faculty, staff and students,

I am very happy to be here this morning to join the NTU community to plant trees – a seemingly simple activity, but one full of meaning and conviction, which will make the environment greener and more beautiful – not just for themselves but for future generations of NTU students to enjoy.

Overview of the OneMillionTrees Movement

The OneMillionTrees movement is a key component of our efforts to transform Singapore into a City in Nature, as part of the Singapore Green Plan 2030. And looking at the environment and weather – not just in Singapore but around the world – heatwaves, fires, droughts – these are all warning indicators that we should really put in effort to tackle climate change as a global community.

Under the OneMillionTrees movement, we have been partnering the community to plant a million more trees across Singapore by 2030 since April 2020.

This will take place throughout the island, including along our streets, and in our gardens, parks, community spaces, residential estates and in our schools and campuses. 

To-date, we have planted almost 400,000 trees!

We could not have done this without the help of over 61,000 members of the community – Including more than 500 organisations, such as schools, corporations, nature groups, non-profit organisations, and grassroots organisations.

Schools and organisations such as AIA, Keppel Corporation, NTUC Fairprice and more recently, Raffles Institution, have shown us tremendous support. And, today, you will be part of this community.

NTU’s role in the OneMillionTrees movement

Today, we will  plant 100 trees along Nanyang Avenue. The trees species have been specially curated by my colleagues at NParks, in collaboration with Dr Shawn Lum, for their unique characteristics.

For example, we will be planting the Melaleuca cajuputi (Paper bark tree), which is native to Singapore. This tree can grow up to 40m and is presumed to be nationally extinct in the wild. So your efforts will supports its conservation.

As NTU sits on land that used to be a swamp in the 1970s, we will also be planting the Tristaniopsis obovata (Sea tristania) and Memecylon coeruleum (Nipis Kulik). These are native trees commonly found along Singapore’s shoreline.

Planting these trees in the vicinity of NTU will provide habitats and food for our native wildlife and enhance the ecological connectivity within the West Coast Green Corridor, which links the Western Water Catchment with the Labrador Nature Reserve to the South and Central Catchment Nature Reserve which is in the heart of our city.

The trees planted will also help to create a greener and more conducive campus for our students – By providing shade, improving air quality and helping to enhance their mental wellbeing.

Tree planting also contributes to our climate change mitigation efforts – By helping to mitigate the Urban Heat Island effect in cooling the surrounding environment; and increasing our carbon sequestration capacity. The OneMillionTrees movement will sequester an estimated 78,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, which will continue to increase over time, as the trees grow and mature.

I am deeply encouraged that NTU and NTU Earthlink is actively championing environmental sustainability efforts. NTU’s Sustainability Manifesto, which was announced in 2021, complements our national efforts under the OneMillionTrees movement and the Singapore Green Plan 2030.

We will work with NTU and our schools to achieve carbon neutrality and reduce net carbon emissions.

In particular, I commend NTU for its commitment to reducing its carbon emissions by 50 percent, by 2035.

I would like to thank the NTreeU team, Earthlink NTU and NParks for organizing today’s event, and the NTU community for coming together to support our greening efforts.

I hope that through this event and future tree planting and other greening events on campus, the NTU community will learn more about the tree species they will be planting and about the diversity of tree species in our City in Nature.

In fact, by coming together as a community and getting to know one another through tree planting, you are making a commitment about Singapore’s future. In planting trees for future generations, you are participating in an act of stewardship and putting in effort on the ground, not to benefit ourselves but to benefit generations to come.

And now, as part of the Forward Singapore conversations we will have, we will have to address many challenges and difficult tensions, and navigate many trade-offs.

As young Singaporeans who care deeply about the environment and society, you can use what you have learnt and your emotional strength to power Singapore forward.

When we see youths like the NTU Earthlink in action and listen to them speak with passion and conviction, yet seldom taking credit for what they do, I think we can all be quietly confident that as part of Forward Singapore’s agenda, youths like you will bring the torch forward for a sustainable Singapore.

So please take part in this important exercise today to play a part in stewarding this land and for all of us and our next generations. I wish all of you a fruitful tree planting activity.

Thank you.