Southeast Asia’s toxic haze spurs calls for legal action against polluters

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – As toxic haze from Indonesia’s worst wildfires in a decade clouded skies across Malaysia and Singapore over the past two months, a growing clamour of voices has demanded legal accountability.In theory, a patchwork of domestic and international laws makes it possible for Southeast Asian governments to hold polluters responsible for cross-border haze, most of which has been blamed on land clearing by Indonesian palm oil plantation owners.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4Far from fringe: How Israel’s mainstream parties vote with the far rightlist 2 of 4Ballon d’Or: Which countries and players have won the most awards?list 3 of 4OpenAI says its agents turned off own safeguardslist 4 of 4Anthropic posts $80bn loss in first half of 2026: WSJend of listIn practice, sensitivities around national sovereignty, a lack of enforcement mechanisms, and the practical challenges of evidence collection make legal action difficult, if not infeasible.On paper, Southeast Asian countries are committed to working together to prevent cross-border air pollution under the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution, signed in 2002.The legally binding treaty commits ...