Issue 219: Singapore sharpens haze law; South-east Asia’s blended sweet spots

Environmental policy

Haze law’s new teeth must bite

On paper, changes to Singapore’s transboundary haze law sharpen the teeth of the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act (THPA). But the threat of getting bitten will not improve behaviour in the palm oil industry until authorities demonstrate that they can hold companies and individuals accountable for causing this year’s haze.

Singapore Minister for Sustainability and the Environment Grace Fu told Parliament on Wednesday (Nov 4) that the THPA amendments are aimed at giving the country “better ways to obtain and verify information, trace complex corporate relationships, and impose meaningful consequences on errant entities, even where criminal prosecution proves difficult”.