"Everything else must bend at the knee to safeguard the existence of our island nation," PM Lee said at the National Day Rally 2019 on 18 August 2019, as he emphasised the importance of implementing a comprehensive defence strategy against climate change. .
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"We should treat climate change defences like we treat the SAF – with utmost seriousness. Work steadily at it, maintain a stable budget year after year, keep your eye on the target and do it over many years and several generations. That way we can afford it, and when we need it, we will have it ready. Both the SAF and climate change defences are existential for Singapore. These are life and death matters. Everything else must bend at the knee to safeguard the existence of our island nation. There is one difference between the two. With the SAF, we hope never to go to war. If you have a strong SAF, you may deter threats and avoid having to go to war. But with climate change, we know for sure sea levels will rise. The only uncertainty is whether they rise a few decades earlier, or a few decades later. Therefore, we will implement our climate change plans progressively, and keep them flexible. But we must start now and sustain the effort, as the Dutch have done over the centuries, and as we have done with the SAF.
We must make this effort. Otherwise one day, our children and grandchildren will be ashamed of what our generation did not do."
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