"KUALA LUMPUR - Southeast Asian nations are gearing up to tackle the threat of a tougher-than-usual "haze" season together, as the El Nino climate phenomenon raises the risk of soaring temperatures.

Ministers and officials from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) met in Singapore last month, where they vowed to ramp up monitoring of wildfires and efforts to prevent air pollution, and finalise a new plan to boost cooperation.

During the dry season in Indonesia - usually starting in August - slash-and-burn clearance of forest and peatland to expand palm oil, farming and pulp and paper production covers much of Southeast Asia in a choking haze for months most years.

Yet environmentalists are concerned that this haze season could be the worst in years, after the World Meteorological Organization warned that temperatures are expected to surge across large parts of the world following the emergence of El Nino in the tropical Pacific for the first time since 2016."

Michael Taylor reports for Thomson Reuters Foundation July 27, 2023. [2]

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