Natalie Chung Sum Yue on V'air, Imperfect Environmentalism and Climate Adaptation
"We don't need one perfect environmentalist. We need eight billion imperfect environmentalists. If everyone can do something a little bit better, we're competing against ourselves."
"Every fraction of a degree of warming prevented means thousands, millions, of lives saved. Maybe we won't hit 1.5 degrees, but every fraction still matters."
"I am like a duck in water. I'm okay from the top, but then under the water I'm sometimes frantically paddling."
"Some things that are lost cannot be retrieved. Money you can still earn back. But relationships is still what gives me persistent joy, like having a community to count on."
Climate advocate and social entrepreneur Natalie Chung Sum Yue co-founded V'air at 18. Hong Kong's award-winning sustainable tourism social enterprise, and has spent a decade growing it from a website into an ecotours, research, and policy advocacy platform. Now completing a PhD at Princeton on nature-based climate adaptation, Natalie reflects on a decade of climate action, the cost of ambition, and why the world needs eight billion imperfect environmentalists.
What you'll learn
- A single moment of inspiration, even a primary school project, can spark a decade of climate action if you take the first step
- Sustainable tourism can be a vehicle for genuine climate education, not just reduced footprints
- Imperfect environmentalism is not hypocrisy, the world needs eight billion imperfect environmentalists, not one perfect one
- Ambition has a hidden cost: career success can come at the expense of weddings, family time, and moments that cannot be recovered
- Making audacious connections, and maintaining them for years, opens unexpected doors, from a COP29 coffee queue to a Prime Minister interview
- Climate adaptation is now as urgent as mitigation, and nature-based solutions are cost-effective tools for the most vulnerable communities
Key moments from the conversation
The school project that launched a decade of climate action
At 11, a polar explorer named Dr. Rebecca Lee, the first person to reach all three poles, spoke at Natalie's primary school and described Earth as trapped in a microwave on the verge of explosion. That image stayed with her. At 18, she entered a pre-COP21 pitching competition run by the French consulate in Hong Kong, and her team's idea of sustainable tourism as a climate education tool won. V'air was born.
From a website to Disney: V'air's decade-long evolution
V'air started as an informational website comparing Hong Kong's natural landscapes to global destinations. It evolved into physical ecotours, then policy advocacy and research. In 2024, V'air co-created a sustainability education programme with Hong Kong Disneyland, tying Disney characters like Moana and Iron Man to live UN SDG data, launched on World Environment Day.
Coffee queues and the Prime Minister of Bhutan
At COP29 in Azerbaijan, Natalie was filming a documentary for Hong Kong's RTUH. Queuing for coffee, she struck up a conversation with a Bhutan delegate who arranged an interview with the Prime Minister of Bhutan the following day, on carbon negativity, forest carbon credits, and Hong Kong's potential role. For Natalie, this is residual networking: connections that look improbable become possible if you stay open.
The honest cost of ambitious living
Natalie reflects openly on what she sacrificed: she missed her closest friend's wedding after being invited as a bridesmaid, and she made the Princeton PhD decision without fully preparing her parents for five years of absence. She calls it an ongoing challenge, and a reminder that transient achievements compete against relationships, which give persistent joy.
Shifting from mitigation to adaptation: the Princeton PhD
At Oxford, Natalie focused on energy decarbonisation policies in Hong Kong and Beijing. At Princeton, she shifted to climate adaptation, studying how nature-based solutions like mangrove and wetland restoration can help communities with no resources for billion-dollar flood walls protect themselves. She sees this as one of the most urgent and under-researched areas in climate science.
Frequently asked questions
What is V'air and what does it do?
V'air Sustainability Education is a Hong Kong social enterprise co-founded by Natalie Chung Sum Yue at 18. Starting as a website comparing Hong Kong nature to global destinations, it grew into a platform delivering ecotours, sustainability education, policy advocacy, and research. It partnered with Hong Kong Disneyland on a sustainability curriculum and has been self-sustaining for three to four years.
What is Natalie Chung's PhD research at Princeton?
Natalie is completing a PhD at Princeton on climate adaptation, specifically how nature-based solutions such as mangrove and wetland restoration can reduce flood risk for communities that cannot afford engineered flood defences. She shifted from mitigation (energy decarbonisation at Oxford) to adaptation, which she considers critically underfunded.
What does imperfect environmentalism mean?
Natalie argues that setting an impossibly high bar for environmentalists, full veganism, no flying, zero consumption, drives people away from the movement. Her view: the world does not need one perfect environmentalist but eight billion imperfect ones, each doing a little better than before and competing only against themselves.
What advice does Natalie give young climate advocates?
Make audacious connections and maintain them over years. Stay open to serendipity at conferences. Actively protect the relationships that give lasting joy rather than chasing transient achievements. And remember that every fraction of a degree of warming prevented still matters, even when progress feels impossibly slow.
Who is Natalie Chung Sum Yue?
Natalie Chung Sum Yue
Co-founder & Climate PhD Candidate · V'air Sustainability Education
Natalie Sum Yue Chung is a leading climate researcher and entrepreneur currently pursuing a PhD in Climate Change Policy at Princeton University, named one of the most impactful sustainability leaders in the Asia Pacific by The Japan Times and Eco-Business. She was selected as the sole Hong Kong representative at the Dr Sylvia Earle Antarctic Climate Expedition to champion ocean-climate solutions, subsequently named the inaugural Museum of Climate Change Scholar. Natalie serves as the Deputy Convenor for Youth and Capacity Building at the Hong Kong SAR Government Council for Carbon Neutrality and Sustainable Development, member at the Green Tech Fund Assessment Committee and the Country and Marine Parks Board. Driven by her passion for providing transformative nature-based experiences, Natalie co-founded V'air Sustainability Education, a pioneering climate education startup with presence at UN conferences including UNFCCC COP29, COP30 and IGF.
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