Cross-border haze has historically blanketed large parts of Southeast Asia during El Niño years, with unchecked land and forest clearing mostly in Indonesia’s Sumatra and Kalimantan becoming a major source of discontent within the bloc.

The region may see the return of widespread smog driven by El Niño and another warming climatic event called the positive Indian Ocean Dipole between August and September this year, according to a recent report published by Singapore-based think tank the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA).

Singaporean Senior Minister of State for Sustainability and the Environment Janil Puthucheary acknowledged the haze risk, adding that the city-state has been coordinating with its counterparts in Jakarta to mitigate the risk.

He also noted that the matter goes beyond bilateral issues, as ASEAN has launched a specific framework on transboundary haze management, making it a serious concern among ASEAN member states.

“So hopefully, this year we’ve every reason to believe it doesn't need to be a repeat of previous times where we have had this set of conditions,” he told a group of Indonesian journalists during a fireside chat in Singapore on July 16.

Puthucheary stressed the need for information exchanges to “develop confidence in the process” of mitigating and preventing transboundary pollution.

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