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Much of maritime Southeast Asia has been blanketed in smoke for weeks, after the
Much of maritime Southeast Asia has been blanketed in smoke for weeks, after the ASEAN Specialised Meteorological Centre raised its transboundary haze alert to Level 3 — its highest tier — toward the end of August. Fires burning across peatlands and forests in Kalimantan and Sumatra have pushed smoke across national borders into Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, and parts of the Philippines. Air quality trackers placed at least six cities in the sub-region among the twenty most polluted in the world on September 1, with Kuching recording the worst readings globally on that date. Indonesian authorities deployed firefighting teams and cloud-seeding flights, though regional commentators argue that land-clearing fires continue to outpace suppression efforts year after year. More than five million people are reported to be in the worst-affected zones. When pollution routinely crosses borders from one country into others, who should bear the responsibility — and the cost — of addressing it?