SINGAPORE — Singapore will use its turn as chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in 2027 to push member states to enforce their long-standing agreement against transboundary haze more firmly, and to get a long-delayed regional haze centre up and running, the city-state's environment minister told Parliament on Tuesday, November 3, 2026.
The pledge comes at the end of a bruising fire season in which smoke from Indonesian land and forest fires drifted across borders for weeks, closed schools, disrupted flights and pushed air quality in parts of the region into hazardous territory. With the smoke now easing, Singapore is shifting from emergency response to the harder diplomatic work of making the region's haze machinery function before the next dry season.
Illustration: Delegates discuss transboundary haze cooperation at a regional meeting in Singapore.
What Happened
Reuters reported on November 3, 2026, that Singapore will work with ASEAN member states to strengthen implementation of the agreement on transboundary haze when it chairs the regional bloc next year. Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu made the commitment in response to questions in Parliament, according to the report.
Singapore will also work with the bloc to establish the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control in Indonesia, Fu said. The centre is intended to strengthen cooperation and coordination in managing land and forest fires and the haze they produce, she told Parliament.
There is, however, a threshold the centre must still clear. It will only come into force after six ASEAN member states have ratified the agreement establishing it, Fu said. That ratification race is now one of the concrete tests of whether the 2027 chairmanship delivers institutional change or merely another round of declarations.
Fu also said Singapore will work with other member states on the root causes of the haze, including peatland management and guidelines on crop burning. Both issues sit at the heart of the annual fire cycle: drained peatland burns easily and is hard to extinguish, while burning remains a cheap way to clear land for planting.
For the immediate outlook, Singapore's meteorological service offered some relief. The haze has eased significantly in Singapore with the weakening of the Southwest monsoon, the service said, with light and variable winds more likely to disperse smoke and increased rainfall expected in November.
Background: A Treaty Written After the Fires of 1997–1998
The ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution was adopted in Kuala Lumpur in 2002, following the severe Southeast Asian forest fires of 1997–1998, and entered into force in 2003, according to legal analyses of the treaty. Indonesia, the region's largest source of fire-related smoke, deposited its instrument of ratification in January 2015 and became bound by the agreement later that year.
The agreement rests on a principle that shapes everything that follows: the country where fires burn fights them first, and outside help arrives only at that country's request or with its consent. The ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control was envisaged under the treaty to facilitate regional cooperation, but its own establishment agreement was only signed on May 27, 2025, analyses note. Under that agreement, it enters into force sixty days after the sixth instrument of ratification is deposited with the ASEAN Secretary-General.
Institutional progress has been slow but visible. Indonesia inaugurated the coordinating centre's secretariat in Jakarta in April 2026, an event its environment ministry described as an important step toward stronger regional environmental cooperation, according to analyses of the process. The physical secretariat, however, is not the same as a fully empowered centre, and the ratification count remains the decisive step.
Illustration: Smoke rises from peatland fires, drifting across borders during the dry season.
The 2026 Fire Season That Forced the Issue
The urgency behind Fu's announcement is written in the 2026 fire season's numbers. Satellite monitoring by Nusantara Atlas put the area burned in Indonesia at more than 1.9 million hectares in the first nine months of 2026, rising from around 896,000 hectares at the end of August to 1.92 million hectares by the end of September. That September total was 38 percent larger than in the same period of 2019, another major fire year, according to the monitoring data reported by regional outlets.
The human cost accumulated quickly. In Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, concentrations of fine particulate matter known as PM2.5 reached 844.6 micrograms per cubic metre on October 15, a level classified as hazardous, and eight local community health centres had recorded 101 cases of acute respiratory infection by October 14, according to regional reporting of the crisis. Indonesia's transport ministry reported that haze affected 2,458 flights across 26 airports between August 11 and October 17.
Across borders, the disruption spread. In Sarawak, Malaysia, 591 schools across 10 districts closed on August 21, disrupting classes for 197,323 students. In Singapore, the 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index reached 222 on October 16, within the very unhealthy range, and the country reactivated subsidies for haze-related medical treatment, a policy last used in 2015. Singapore's National Environment Agency reported unhealthy air for 15 consecutive days by October 19, surpassing the eight-day stretch recorded during the severe haze episode of 2015, according to regional reporting.
The fires themselves, researchers and environmental groups say, were overwhelmingly human-lit. The Indonesian Forum for Living Environment (Walhi) counted 34,262 hotspots across Kalimantan from January to July 2026 and reported that about 74 percent sat inside licensed concession areas, including oil palm, mining and forestry permits. Indonesia's weather agency has said the El Niño dry spell created the conditions, but an ignition source was still needed.
Diplomatic strains accompanied the smoke. Reuters noted that Singapore has faced angry rhetoric from Jakarta amid tensions over the wildfires, and that Indonesia has warned Muslim pilgrims against transiting through Singapore and cut gas supplies to the city-state. On October 27, the two countries' foreign ministers met in Jakarta and said they planned to set up a task force to hold businesses accountable for involvement in the wildfires, according to reporting of the meeting. Singapore has also served notices on Indonesian companies under its Transboundary Haze Pollution Act of 2014, though no company has been fined under the law since it was enacted, according to analyses of the act.
Why It Matters
The announcement matters because it converts a recurring seasonal crisis into a dated institutional deadline. As ASEAN chair in 2027, Singapore will set meeting agendas, broker compromises and carry the political cost of pressing neighbours on an issue that touches land use, plantation economics and national sovereignty. A chairmanship gives Singapore leverage it does not have as an ordinary member — but only for a year, and only if it arrives with ratifications already in hand.
The coordinating centre is the mechanism that could change the response in practice. A functioning centre would give the region a single hub for fire monitoring, coordination and, crucially, pre-agreed procedures for deploying help when smoke crosses borders. Under the current treaty, assistance requires a request and consent, and analysts have argued that the gap between an offer of help and aircraft in the air has repeatedly been measured in weeks. Advance, pre-agreed procedures would narrow that gap without overriding any country's control over its own territory.
The root-cause agenda matters just as much. Peatland management determines whether fires start and how long they burn: rewetted peat resists ignition, while drained peat can smoulder for weeks underground. Crop-burning guidelines, if enforced across concessions, address the ignition source directly. Neither can be imposed from Singapore; both require Indonesia, Malaysia and other member states to act on their own land. That is why Fu framed the pledge as joint work with member states rather than a unilateral demand.
Illustration: Singapore's skyline under light haze as the monsoon transition brings relief.
What Happens Next
The first milestone to watch is ratification. Six ASEAN member states must ratify the centre's establishment agreement before it comes into force, and the timing of those ratifications will determine whether the centre is operational before the next dry season. Analyses of the process have noted that deposits by the end of 2026 would bring the centre into force in early 2027, while later deposits would push its start closer to, or beyond, the fire season it is meant to address.
The second milestone is Singapore's chairmanship agenda itself. Expect the haze file to feature in ministerial meetings through 2027, alongside the joint task-force work with Indonesia on corporate accountability for fires. Whether peatland and crop-burning measures appear as concrete commitments or remain general language will be the clearest signal of how far the chairmanship moved the issue.
In the near term, the region gets a seasonal reprieve. The weakening Southwest monsoon and expected November rainfall should keep Singapore's air clearer, according to its meteorological service. But the reprieve is temporary: the same cycle will return with the next dry season, and by then the question will be whether the centre Singapore is championing exists as a functioning institution or remains an agreement awaiting its sixth signature.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What did Singapore announce about transboundary haze?
Singapore's environment minister, Grace Fu, told Parliament on November 3, 2026, that Singapore will push ASEAN member states to strengthen implementation of the transboundary haze agreement when it chairs the bloc in 2027, and will work to establish the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control in Indonesia.
What is the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Transboundary Haze Pollution Control?
It is the regional hub envisaged under ASEAN's haze treaty to strengthen cooperation and coordination in managing land and forest fires and haze. Its establishment agreement was signed in May 2025, and it only comes into force after six ASEAN member states ratify it.
Why is the haze a recurring problem in Southeast Asia?
Fires used to clear land, especially on drained peatland, produce smoke that drifts across borders during dry seasons, worsened in 2026 by a strong El Niño. Peat fires are difficult to extinguish and can smoulder for weeks, while wind patterns carry smoke to Malaysia, Singapore and beyond.
How bad was the 2026 haze season?
Satellite monitoring put the burned area in Indonesia above 1.9 million hectares in the first nine months of 2026. Schools closed in Malaysia, flights were disrupted across Indonesia, and Singapore recorded very unhealthy air, including a 24-hour Pollutant Standards Index reading of 222 on October 16.
What happens next?
Watch for ratifications of the centre's establishment agreement, Singapore's chairmanship agenda through 2027, and the joint Singapore–Indonesia task force on holding businesses accountable for fires. Near-term relief comes from the monsoon transition and November rainfall, but the institutional test arrives before the next dry season.
Sources
Reuters, "Singapore will push for stronger action against transboundary haze as ASEAN chair in 2027, says minister," November 3, 2026 (reporting by Jun Yuan Yong; editing by David Stanway). AFP via Phys.org, "Indonesia haze chokes neighbors, but little legal recourse," October 1, 2026. Reporting on the 2026 fire season from Seasia.co, The Edge (via i3investor), BusinessWorld and Nusantara Atlas satellite monitoring data, October 2026. Treaty background from analyses of the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution (2002) and the ASEAN Coordinating Centre establishment agreement (2025).
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