Can we please be rid of haze by 2030?

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The centrepiece of ASEAN efforts in combating the haze is the 2002 Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (AATHP), which seeks to prevent and monitor transboundary haze pollution through concerted national efforts and strong regional cooperation.

seeks to facilitate cross-border exchanges of firefighting technology, expertise and resources, and to manage requests and mobilisation for regional emergency assistance.

But cooperation seems to have stopped there and has not extended to the critical phase of bringing the perpetrators to justice. Without cross-border legal mechanisms to hold polluters accountable, national laws are toothless.

Singapore, which has enacted its own laws, can achieve only so much without the cooperation of neighbours. A key piece of legislation is the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA), enacted in 2014. It asserts extraterritorial jurisdiction to prosecute entities – foreign or domestic – whose offshore burning causes hazardous smoke at home. Yet more than a decade after its enactment, there has been no prosecution.
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