Haze puts cooperation to the test

Seeking relief: An Indonesian praying for rain at the compound of the Mujahidin Grand Mosque in Pontianak, West Kalimantan province, as haze from wildfires blankets the area. — Reuters

Enhanced cooperation to fight fires in hotspot areas across southern Asean is crucial in add­ressing the current transboundary haze situation, according to the Singapore Institute of Inter­natio­nal Affairs (SIIA).

Its chairman Simon Tay said the current haze conditions in the southern Asean region serve as a test of the region’s collaboration in addressing the haze threat.

“For now, cooperation to fight the fires is most important. We are seeing real effort in addressing the fires even if it is not perfect; that effort should be recognised.

“It is also critical to remember that the weather is hot and dry this year and the strong El Nino is a severe test,” he told Bernama yesterday.

While acknowledging Asean’s current cooperation on hotspot monitoring and sharing of scientific data through the Asean Spe­cia­lised Meteorological Centre (ASMC), Tay said there was still room to improve information- sharing and coordination of firefighting plans.

He noted that the matter will be under the purview of the new Asean Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control (ACC THPC) in Jakarta, which was launched earlier this year but is yet to be fully operational.

“Hopefully, this year’s haze ­situation will serve as an impetus to finalise the implementation of agree­ments with all Asean member states and have the centre up and running,” he added.

According to Tay, long-term action on the haze will need to continue beyond this year’s dry season, as climate change is expec­ted to bring hotter and drier conditions in the years ahead.

The chairman noted that Malay­sia had proposed greater use of “science diplomacy” and a new Sustainable Haze Fund to streng­then regional cooperation and financing on haze prevention during the sub-regional Asean ministerial meeting on haze in July.

“This is a good proposal; there is an existing Haze Pollution Con­trol Fund under Asean, but its resources are limited.

“One issue for the 2026 fire season is that local authorities and disaster management agencies may have fewer financial resour­ces due to the overall bad global economy and tightening of public budgets,” he said.

Tay also said the haze would remain on the regional agenda when Singapore assumes the chairmanship of Asean in 2027.

“The current haze situation is a stress-test of the region’s haze preparedness, but it is also an opp­ortunity to build stronger cooperation going forward,” he said. — Bernama