Haze clears, carbon remains

Last month, many parents in the Klang Valley woke up to a sight they had missed for weeks: Genting Highlands, visible again on the horizon. After a haze season that began in August, the skies had finally cleared.

But the smoke has gone; the carbon released by the fires has not. If we want fewer haze seasons like this one, we must treat haze prevention and climate action as the same fight.

Haze is mostly fine particles that dim the skyline and irritate our lungs. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) is an invisible greenhouse gas. Both come from the same fire, but they do not linger for the same length of time. Wind and rain can clear the particles within days. Some CO₂ remains in the atmosphere for centuries, adding to the warming that makes dry seasons harsher and fires easier to start.

According to the World Bank, about 2.6 million hectares burned in Indonesia between June and October 2015, costing the country at least US$16.1bil, excluding the costs borne by Malaysia and Singapore. A study in Scientific Reports found that in September and October that year, the fires released an average of 11.3 million tonnes of CO₂ a day – more than the daily fossil fuel emissions of the entire European Union.

This year came close. Data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) showed that Indonesian fires released more than 23 million tonnes of carbon between Aug 28 and Sept 3, higher than the same week in 2015. By late October, Indonesia’s estimated fire emissions for 2026 had reached about 180 million tonnes of carbon.

Much of this comes from peatlands. Kept wet, these waterlogged soils rarely burn. Drained, they dry out and become fuel that can smoulder underground for weeks, releasing carbon that took thousands of years to accumulate. El Nino made conditions drier, but land-use and burning decisions turned that risk into a disaster.

So haze is not simply “bad weather”. We cannot control El Nino, but we can control how peatlands are managed and how rules are enforced. Nor is this only Indonesia’s problem: Malaysia has its own peatlands, and local open burning still adds to the smoke we breathe.

Three steps stand out. First, fire preparedness should be year-round work. Fire and rescue services, the Department of Environment, and local authorities need equipment, trained personnel, and clear responsibilities in place before the dry season, not after hotspots appear.

Second, discouraging burning must be matched with practical support. Smallholders need affordable ways to clear land without fire, alongside firm enforcement.

Third, companies and the buyers and investors behind them should check for fire risk in their supply chains and show what they do when fires are detected on the land they source from.

Regionally, the Asean Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution provides a framework for shared monitoring and joint response. Its value lies in reducing risk before the next crisis, not merely managing the smoke.

We should also be clear about what our numbers tell us. The API reading on your phone tells you whether your child can play outside today. It cannot tell you how much carbon went up in smoke. A clear skyline does not prove that emissions have fallen. Judge progress by fewer fires, cleaner air, and lower emissions.

When the haze clears, it is tempting to move on. Instead, this is the time to prepare, restore, and prevent, so that next year there is less smoke to clear and less carbon left behind.

MUHAMMAD FADHLI MAKHTAR

Selangor