Speech by MOS Alvin Tan at the World Cities Summit (WCS) 2026 NParks Session - 'Restoring Nature for Healthy Cities'

Introduction

Good morning everybody, and welcome to the World Cities Summit. I hope that many of our foreign guests have had a wonderful time over the last three days, not just seeing Suntec City, but also seeing our small city, and learning from one another.

So let me start. First, I wanted to acknowledge Councillor Anna Reynolds, Lord Mayor of Hobart, Mr Mauricio Mira Pontón, Senior Sustainability Advisor to the City of Santiago de Cali, Ms Loh Shu Ching, Consultant (Community Health), National Healthcare Group Population Health, and Dr Tan Puay Yok, my colleague and Chief Executive Officer of the National Parks Board. And to all our guests here, a really warm, maybe not too warm morning to all of you. Thank you for joining us at the World Cities Summit plenary session on 'Restoring Nature for Healthy Cities'.

Context

So let us start this morning with a very simple question: "How do we build healthy, resilient and liveable cities at a time when cities are ageing, cities are heating and cities are intensifying? So cities are now graying, ageing, they are heating because of climate change, and they are also intensifying, which means that more people are moving from rural places to cities. Now that's the first question. The second question is, what do we about this, and can we address this by restoring nature?

Well, the evidence and the experiences of cities around the world suggests that the answer is yes, but there is a caveat: it's only if we are deliberate about this, only if we do something about this.

Now, research has shown that exposure to greenery can reduce stress levels, lift our moods, encourage physical activity, and support overall well-being. So don't stay in your hotels, get out there, go running, go and enjoy our parks - you'll be more energetic.

And to respond to the scale of the challenges that our cities face, we must move beyond something that is pedantic - move beyond viewing green spaces as simply recreational amenities that are pleasant but optional, but instead we ought to recognise them as essential public infrastructure for public health.

So when we intentionally design cities with nature in mind, and use nature to support community well-being, we create environments that are healthier for people and more resilient for cities.

This is the opportunity this session is going to touch on.

So please allow me to expand more on the key pressures our cities face today, and how nature can play an important role to address these challenges. Again, I mentioned earlier on that the three pressures are: cities are graying, cities are heating, and cities are intensifying.

Key Challenge #1 - Cities Are Ageing

So, first challenge: cities are graying. Our populations are ageing rapidly. Actually, Singapore is already a super aged nation state, and this places growing pressures on healthcare systems and community support networks for seniors.

The challenges go beyond physical health. Many face social isolation and loneliness as they age, and struggle to stay active and engaged.

So, how we design our cities can affect whether our residents age well and stay connected, active and independent later in life. Accessible, well-designed green spaces are part of the answer because they provide environments where seniors can exercise, socialise, and reconnect with nature to enhance their mental and emotional well-being.

Cities must thus use nature more intentionally to create environments that support healthy ageing, active living, and better quality of life in later years.

Key Challenge #2 - Cities Are Heating - Climate Change

So that's our first challenge: our cities are graying. The second challenge is that our cities are heating - rising temperatures, of course. We are moving into a hotter climate in the next couple of months, June, July. Because all across Southeast Asia, as it is, and in fact the world, rising temperatures, more frequent extreme weather events, and other environmental stressors are placing growing strain on natural systems and the essential services that these natural systems provide, such as clean air and water, heat regulation, and flood protection.

Cities must therefore integrate nature-based solutions for both climate adaptation and ecological conservation. But because this not only protects ecosystems, but it also safeguards the well-being of communities. So, the natural ecosystem and also humans that live within these communities.

Key Challenge #3 - Cities Are Intensifying - Increasing Urbanisation

Now, the third key challenge is that cities are intensifying.

By 2050, almost 70% of the world's population is projected to live in urban areas, placing growing pressure on infrastructure, public spaces, and essential services.

Last week, I was in Tanzania. Africa is a vast continent, but even as we were speaking to many of the leaders in Africa, many of the rural communities are moving into their cities and they have to adapt, they have to build infrastructure to be able to accommodate new populations moving from rural areas to urban areas. So with that in mind, we must thus rethink how we plan and design our cities, with green spaces that support both nature and public health being a key consideration.

Singapore's Greening Journey Into A City In Nature

So, I have laid out these three, and maybe that might be helpful in your discussions later. But please allow me to also share our experience in Singapore.

We are a very small nation and island state, but let's maybe look into what we've done, and we'd love for you to also share with us your own experiences. Graying, heating, intensifying cities.

Singapore intimately knows all of these pressures well, because we are one of the world's most densely populated cities - home to over six million people in just 744 square kilometers, about half the size of Greater London. And in that same vein, we face the same pressures that many cities represented here today are grappling with. So we have had to find ways to address them, within our very real and tight land and resource constraints.

These constraints have forced us to be deliberate, it's forced us to be intentional about how we plan and design our city from the very beginning.

Our greening journey began in the 1960s, when our founding leaders made a deliberate choice: that a clean and green environment was not a luxury, but in fact a necessity for our fledging nation's survival and also economic development.

You'd never think about when you start building a city or a nation after the British had pulled out of Singapore and after we had gained independence from Malaysia, that the focus would be on greenery, and that economic development is tied to greenery. That was a very new way of thinking of things. So what did our founding leaders do? Well, trees were planted along roadsides, and parks were developed within new housing estates. Now, these were practical decisions, but it also was very novel and also far-sighted.

Because these efforts play a role in improving public health and made Singapore more attractive to businesses and talent. So when you fly down from Changi, the first thing that greets you is our airport, you know, we have a waterfall right in the middle of Changi. But there was a very deliberate attempt to line the streets coming into the city with greenery.

Today, we have evolved our greening approach over the 61 years, decades, from independence. As part of our journey to transform Singapore now into a City in Nature, we are deliberately integrating greenery within our highly urbanised environment.

This means that we are conserving, intensifying and extending Singapore's natural capital island-wide to create a more sustainable, liveable and climate-resilient Singapore.

We are in fact integrating greenery into our high-rise developments through skyrise greenery, developing park connectors that serve as green corridors, and encouraging communities to garden together in the many community gardens found in our neighbourhoods.

We have also become more deliberate about designing greenery with public health outcomes in mind.

Last year, our National Parks Board launched its Parks for Health framework. This Parks for Health framework supports Singapore's national health initiatives by enhancing access to greenery and therapeutic landscapes. So my seniors, for example, they are within at least a 10-minute walk to a park. And that's our ambition as well, because this allows communities to experience nature's health and well-being benefits.

Dr Tan Puay Yok, Chief Executive of National Parks Board, will share more later about our City in Nature strategies and how we are using our parks and green spaces to support better health outcomes in Singapore.

I also look forward to learning from our panellists about how cities can use greenery to be healthier and more liveable.

Exchange of MOU Between NParks and Cali

And my friends, before I close, I am also pleased to share that NParks and the City of Santiago de Cali in Colombia will be exchanging a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) after this.

This partnership began in 2024 when NParks and Cali officials connected through a meeting on biodiversity initiatives, and both sides have since expressed an interest in learning from each other's conservation experiences.

So, this MOU that we're going to be signing and witnessing will cover mutual knowledge exchange and capacity building in nature-based solutions, animal welfare and urban fauna management, environmental education citizen science, and research.

So I look forward to the continued partnership between both cities on this front, and I take the opportunity to pitch. If any other cities are ready and happy to work with us, we will be very much happy to learn from you as well.

Conclusion

In conclusion, my dear friends, even though our cities are gray, heating and intensifying, I believe - and I'm sure many of you share the same sentiment - that we can make them healthier, more resilient, and more liveable by forging new partnerships, coming up with new ideas, and having the conviction to restore nature into our cities. This is an investment for our future, and I thank you, and I wish all of you a wonderful session ahead. Thank you very much.