COMMENT: As toxic haze blankets South-East Asia, Indonesia is running out of excuses

By late August, Indonesia’s forest and peatland fires had burned nearly 900,000 hectares, triggering toxic haze that regularly chokes communities in Kalimantan, Sumatra and Papua and has drifted as far as Vietnam, prompting air-quality alerts. Satellite data cited from Nusantara Atlas says the burned area has surpassed the already catastrophic 2019 and 2023 fire seasons. The fires also accelerate global heating: Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service estimates about 106 million tonnes of CO2 released. The emissions could undermine Indonesia’s Paris Agreement NDC goal to make its Forestry and Other Land Use sector a net carbon sink by 2030, as skepticism grows over government inaction and reliance on international climate finance.