The Speakers

Joseph Teo
Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment, Climate Change Negotiation Office
Singapore's Chief Negotiator for Climate Change

Mr Joseph Teo was appointed Singapore’s Chief Negotiator for Climate Change on 2 July 2018.

Prior to his current appointment, Mr Teo has held various overseas assignments in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). He was Singapore’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York (2015-2018), Deputy Chief of Mission at the Singapore Embassy in Belgium (2005-2008), and First Secretary at the Permanent Mission of Singapore to the United Nations and the World Trade Organisation in Geneva (1995-1998), where he was concurrently appointed Singapore’s Consul in Switzerland.

Mr Teo also held varied appointments at MFA HQ in Singapore, including as Deputy Director-General, Americas Directorate. Mr Teo was also Singapore’s Deputy Chief Negotiator for Climate Change from 2012-2014, when he helped to coordinate the work of the Inter-Ministry Negotiating Team on all issues relating to the international climate change negotiations.

Mr Teo has a Bachelor of Economics Degree (First Class) from Murdoch University, Perth, Australia, in 1992, and a Masters of Arts Degree from Stanford University, USA, in 2000.

The Government of Singapore awarded Mr Teo the Public Administration Medal (Bronze) in 2010 and the Long Service Medal in 2016.

Marie-Claire Graf
YOUNGO
Global Focal Point

Marie-Claire is a Swiss youth advocate for sustainable development and climate action through her engagement in several initiatives around all dimensions of sustainability on a local, national and international level.

On a national level, she is the president of the Swiss Associations of Student Organizations for Sustainability, which supports students and sustainability at all Swiss higher education institutions.

Internationally, she is vice president and responsible for international external relations at Swiss Youth for Climate, which committed itself to pragmatic and responsible climate policies both at national and international level. Furthermore, she is a Climate Reality Leader, trained by Al Gore and is giving presentations, talks and interviews on the climate crisis and what has to be done to fight it.

Additionally, she is co-founder of an awarded (by ETH, Zurich & MIT, Boston) crowdsourcing platform startup for aggregated science-based and citizen-science data with the aim to empower citizens in urban planning and decision-making trough organized and structured big data for sustainable cities called C’Square.

Natalia Gómez Solano

NDC Partnership Youth Task Force (2020)
Youth Co-Chair

Aged 23, Natalia is a youth activist who served as a Co-Chair of the NDC Partnership Youth Task Force in 2020. She is also the co-founder and vice-president of the Costa Rican Youth and Climate Change Network.

Passionate about climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and geographic information systems, she is currently working on her thesis on climate adaptation tracking in the agricultural sector as an environmental engineering student at the Costa Rica Institute of Technology.

She also works as a Junior Technical Assistant at Project A: Resilient Territories to Climate Change Project where she develops local climate adaptation capacity and researches soil and biochar technology.

Swati Mandloi
Singapore Youth for Climate Action
Youth Delegate

Swati Mandloi is a youth delegate representing Singapore Youth for Climate Action (SYCA) and is passionate about creating awareness about climate change from the point of policy development and economic growth. She currently works as a sustainability business analyst with a waste management technology company based in Singapore.

Swati is an avid supporter of environmental conservation and has been involved in tiger habitat and marine life conservation programs in the region. She is also a writer with Eco-Business, a digital media company that reports on the topic of sustainable development in the Asia Pacific region.

She is a graduate of the Masters in Environmental Management course from the National University of Singapore where she focused on the topic of environmental economics and international climate change negotiations.

Taufiq Yahya
Kowabunga || Kidz Treehouse Nature Campus
Founder & CEO || Director

For over 12 years, Kowabunga! Global has developed companies with a mission towards social causes and sustainability. Its aim is to nurture aspiring changemakers to create a better world, a better future.

Focusing on educating the young, Kowabunga! works closely with organisations and government agencies to develop programmes for children and youths to equip them with the skill sets for jobs that have yet to exist and to nurture their hearts to fill with compassion for the earth and humanity.

Kidz Treehouse empowers young minds to act responsibly as global changemakers. We develop emotionally-resilient children who are mindful of how their actions impact people and the environment.

Joel Chan
ClimateScience
Director of Community Programmes

As Director of Community Programs, Joel has helped in the usage of fun and reliable Climate change education both locally and internationally.

ClimateScience has an increased focus on Climate Solutions and believes that such education is the key for the way out of the Climate Crisis we currently face. ClimateScience educational materials have received positive feedback from teachers and organisations around the world and we aim to continue to spread such material to create a new generation of talents to enter the race to find climate solutions.

Joel also acts as the content author for the Personal Action Course in ClimateScience and is active in the local environmental activism scene.

You may wish to check out https://climate-science.com/ as a lead up to SCOY.

Woo Qiyun
theweirdandwild
Founder

Qiyun is an environmental studies graduate, with a keen interest in understanding nature-society relations, climate-related corporate strategies as well as environmental communications.

Her educational background coupled with a keen interest in environmental issues has allowed her to develop explainers using graphics on Instagram (@theweirdandwild) that communicate complex climate issues succinctly and critically, backed by research and data. Leveraging on the platform, she have run online campaigns and engagements, hosted book clubs on alternative economic models and ecofeminism and produced written work that covers local pertinent climate issues.

As a creative spirit, she interested in the intersection of art and climate action, extending it to communicating sustainability concepts with great impact.

Kimberly Hoong
Edible Garden City
Deputy Head, Foodscaping

She's the deputy head of Foodscaping at Edible Garden City. A life-changing six-month stay in the Indian Himalayas made her see the different ways of living more consciously and sustainably.

The idea of slow living for Kimberly Hoong is simply taking a step back and not getting caught up in the daily grind. The 24-year-old once suffered from anxiety as a result of packing too many activities within a day.

Kimberly, the deputy head of Foodscaping at Edible Garden City (EGC) in Queenstown, says: “Being in nature makes me realise that there is so much more out there (in life). Slow living translates to happiness because I live more consciously and mindfully, thinking twice before I buy something.”

The EGC, an urban farming social enterprise, sells fresh produce to food and beverage outlets, builds and maintains food gardens in the city, and conducts farming workshops.

She adds: “You don’t need so many clothes or all the expensive food to be happy. You don’t need to earn a million bucks. You can be happy if you learn how to live simply.” The millennial female farmer discovered her passion for farming at 19.

(Source: The Happiness Project)

Cai Bingyu (Bingyu's session will be pre-recorded)
Ground-Up Initiative
Kampung Architect

Starting off as a volunteer in 2011, Bingyu now takes charge of all things related to the built environment at GUI. Being an architect by training, he played a big part in building Kampung Kampus and the Heartquarters, an Award Winning net-zero energy building. He is also a highly driven and creative problem solver, who supports GUI in many other strategic planning and operational matters beyond estate management.

Bingyu is a firm believer of learning by doing, getting his hands dirty and being grounded in everything he does. His work with GUI is a testament of his beliefs and commitment to a better future for the next generations. Explore https://groundupinitiative.org/

Professor Koh Lian Pin
Centre for Nature-based Climate Solutions, National University of Singapore

Director AND Professor of Conservation Science, Technology and Policy

Professor Koh Lian Pin is an applied ecologist and a pioneer in low-cost conservation drone technology. He brings 16 years of international research experience in the field of sustainability and environmental science, having worked in institutions across Switzerland, Australia and the United States.

In 2020, he returned to Singapore under the National Research Foundation’s Returning Singaporean Scientists scheme. His research focuses on developing policy-relevant science and science-based decision support tools to help reconcile humanity’s needs with environmental protection. He is particularly interested in environmental issues in the developing tropics, a region where population growth is most rapid, yet the people are poorest, and where biodiversity is the richest, yet most threatened globally.

Prof. Koh is one of the most highly cited conservation scientists in Asia, a TED-Global speaker, Founding Director of ConservationDrones.org and a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader.

Lau Xin Yi
Carbon Trust
Green Finance Lead, South East Asia

Xin Yi is Green Finance Lead, South East Asia at the Carbon Trust. In her current role, she works closely with financial institutions and corporates on a range of Green and Sustainable Finance projects involving different financial instruments such as bonds and loans. Her recent project involves providing a Second Party Opinion on UOB’s Smart City Sustainable Finance Framework and internal procedures in accordance with the Green Loan Principles and Sustainability Linked Loan Principles as part of the new Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’ Green and Sustainability-Linked Loan Grant Scheme.

She also supports the delivery of green finance solutions within the UK ASEAN Low Carbon Energy Programme (LCEP), a £15 million aid programme under the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office’s Prosperity Fund. The programme provides policy support, capacity building and technical assistance to facilitate green finance flows, and create enabling conditions for energy efficiency projects in select South East Asian countries.

Xin Yi previously spent five years at a leading independent think tank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), as a Senior Policy Research Analyst (Sustainability) where she focused on environmental sustainability in ASEAN’s resource sector. She is actively involved in engagement with corporations and the financial sector with a view to drive sustainability and deepen cross-sector partnerships.

Prior to this, Xin Yi worked at Sustainalytics where she evaluated and benchmarked the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices of publicly-listed companies in three industries: Consumer Discretionary, Food and Utilities.

Xin Yi holds a Bachelor of Science (Economics) with a second major in Political Science (Public Policy, Development and Management) from the Singapore Management University.

Jiehui Kia
Ichi Seiki
Marketing and Sales

After working at the sustainability non-profit Forum for the Future for seven years, Jie Hui joined Ichi Seiki, a family engineering firm run by her father, in a new role as a “next-generation business leader” in sales and marketing. Explore what this family business does at https://www.ichiseiki.com/

Heng Li Seng
Green Nudge
Founder & CEO

Li Seng is the founder of Green Nudge, a social enterprise that supports businesses and communities to achieve positive environmental impact through activities such as coastal cleanups and workshops, outreach talks and sustainability consulting. Find out more at www.greennudge.sg