Make Life A Little Easier for Someone Else

"Datin Seri Sunita has shown that courage, resilience, and purpose can overcome even the greatest challenges. This recognition by the University of Bristol is richly deserved. My heartfelt congratulations, and I wish her continued success in advancing climate leadership for the benefit of future generations."

Dato' Henry Barlow, Independent Non-Executive Director and Chair of the Board, CGM

"Datin Seri Sunita's graduation is a fitting recognition of her commitment to lifelong learning and principled leadership. At a time when climate governance demands both intellectual rigour and moral courage, she continues to demonstrate that meaningful change begins with a willingness to learn, lead, and serve. On behalf of the CGM council, please accept my warmest congratulations on this well-deserved achievement."

Dr. Gary Theseira, Chair of Council, CGM

Datin Seri's speech below was delivered during the convocation ceremony on 13 July 2026.

Vice-Chancellor, members of the faculty, distinguished guests, my fellow graduates, friends and family — thank you for this extraordinary honour, coming from the Law Faculty of the University of Bristol, where I first learnt how to think, to doubt, and to act.

I am deeply grateful to the many who shaped my journey: Prof Nigel Furey, Prof Harry McVea, Prof Oliver Quick and our ground-breaking Vice-Chancellor Evelyn Welch, whose intellect and energy are reshaping this institution.

I recognise that no one receives an honour like this alone. Any title attached to my name belongs, in truth, to many others: mentors and colleagues who shared the load, communities who co-created solutions, students and volunteers who turned good intentions into real work on the ground. This honour is for them as much as me.

My journey in climate governance did not begin with a grand strategy. I was invited to launch the country chapter of the World Economic Forum’s climate governance initiative — and then did nothing for months. It was such a new concept, and I had no one to talk to. I was not even allowed to say “net zero” to some in government, who viewed it as neo-colonialism.

In May 2019, I was pushed into launching Climate Governance Malaysia by the Securities Commission, the Minister of Environment and the British Ambassador for Climate Change.

Exactly three months later, I was startled awake in the middle of the night by my husband and, within ten minutes, he was dead. It was a traumatic experience that took months to recover from.

More challenges were to come: the pandemic struck in early 2020. Self-isolated in my room, I began reading and speaking to people online about the climate emergency, especially the founder of the climate governance initiative — and that was when I hit my stride.

Together with a passionate group of CEOs, we became possibly the largest mobilisation of the private sector — and it was for climate action.

Looking back, the pivotal moments were never when I knew exactly what I was doing. They were the moments when I was nervous and scared but said “yes” anyway: yes to starting a small initiative with no resources; yes to speaking up in rooms where I was the youngest, the only woman, or the only person from the Global South.

Today, many of you are stepping out into a world defined by overlapping crises: a destabilising climate, widening inequality, fragile democracies, and technologies racing ahead of our ethics. It can feel overwhelming.

Systems are made by people — and they can be changed by people. Precedent is powerful, but it is not destiny. Every right you studied here — limited liability to basic labour protections to environmental safeguards — was once someone’s unpopular, inconvenient idea.

We are living in unique times: a tiny, narrowing window in which our actions can still bend the arc of history. We know what needs to be done, with the vast majority of scientists warning and guiding us. We are already experiencing a preview of life in a warmer world: 2700 deaths (in England & Wales) from extreme heat days (today’s headlines); oceans warming at unprecedented rates; biodiversity being lost at catastrophic speed.

Every single one of us will be affected and society is relying on us to simply do what is right.

Do not wait until you feel “ready” to do the work that matters. The world you inherit does not need more perfection; it needs more courage, more imagination, and more people willing to be slightly uncomfortable, in service of something larger than themselves.

Graduates, my challenge to you is simple: wherever you go next, make it a little easier for someone more vulnerable than you to breathe, to be heard, and to belong.

Ralph Waldo Emerson “to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

If you do that, consistently, quietly, relentlessly, you will have lived up to the very best of what this University stands for.

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