As Singapore moved away from farming, my parents needed to find new work. My father sold poultry in a wet market and my mother did sewing work in a mattress factory. Their example taught me adaptability and grit.

At 19, I earned a government scholarship to study economics overseas. I always wanted to work in public policy, because having benefited from Singapore’s system, I wanted to play a role in continuing our country’s success. 

In the 2000s, I got my first brush with energy policy when I joined the new Energy Policy Division at the Ministry of Trade & Industry.

At the time, war in the Middle East and growing climate concerns were reshaping how Singapore was planning its energy future. Almost twenty years later, I find myself at EMA addressing similar energy security and sustainability concerns, but with a different twist.

There is much greater urgency to decarbonise. New clean energy sources and technologies are becoming available, but we need to navigate geopolitical developments that are reshaping the global energy trade. We are now on the cusp of an even larger energy transition.

Throughout my experiences, I have learned that policy constantly evolves as context changes. As public servants, our job is to learn fast, adapt, and innovate, while maintaining a clear sense of national and public interests.

At EMA, our mission to move Singapore towards net zero is challenging — some would even say impossible because of Singapore’s constraints and the competing goals we must balance.

We must secure energy supply by diversifying into sources like solar, which depend on unpredictable weather.

We must strengthen resilience, by adding complexity to the grid with distributed generation and storage.

We must decarbonise in collaboration with other countries, because we are small and import-dependent.

And we must keep electricity affordable at home, while ensuring a healthy energy sector at every stage of an increasingly complex supply chain.

Reconciling these competing goals requires curiosity about the future, which is not pre-determined: when we say the mission is impossible, we mean ‘for now.’

As technologies advance — whether it is with more affordable and efficient solar cells, small modular reactors, or smart systems for managing energy demand — policies must adapt quickly to enable and scale them. 

Our mission is difficult, and sometimes when there are setbacks, you might get discouraged and decide to try something else that is easier. But I hope our officers recognise that despite the obstacles, what we do is worthwhile.

To grow at EMA, one needs to understand governance in the context of a small nation: what helps us survive, how we thrive, and what risks to guard against.

We need strong communication skills and emotional intelligence to work with diverse stakeholders: government agencies (both at home and abroad), NGOs, private companies, even sectors outside energy. Building trust and strong teamwork comes from how we connect with others.

We also encourage movements between different teams in EMA, so officers become comfortable learning new things and working with new people. Adaptability will be crucial to driving the energy transition.

Energy powers everything we do in Singapore, from staying connected online to indoor farming and water reclamation and desalination.

Our task is great, but the rewards are greater still. If you work at EMA, you can be part of the team that powers the impossible.