Nik Nazmi: Putrajaya not giving up on transboundary haze law yet

Putrajaya is still open to legislating laws to criminalise acts causing haze in Malaysia.

Natural Resources, Environment and Climate Change Minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad reiterated that he had consistently said such laws can only be legislated once a workable solution can be found.

"Specifically, we need to ensure that the law can be implemented, based on the experience of countries with similar laws, such as Singapore," he said in a statement.

Nik Nazmi pointed out that the most successful legal instrument so far has been the US-Canada Air Quality Agreement 1991.

He said his ministry was still collecting feedback from stakeholders and will hold a workshop after the 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference or Conference of the Parties of the UNFCCC (COP28) which ends on Dec 12.

"I stress that my ministry has not shut the door on this legislation as a mechanism to address transboundary haze. The government is committed to ensuring this issue is under control."

Two days ago, Nik Nazmi told Parliament that the transboundary haze law will not be tabled soon due to foreseeable implementation problems and that Putrajaya was also pursuing a diplomatic approach.

This prompted a response from environmentalists including Greenpeace which slammed the government for not being serious in tackling transboundary haze pollution.

Singapore had in 2014 enacted such a law but as of today, no one has been charged.

The law's proponents have argued that such a law was needed as a deterrence against entities involved in starting forest fires or open burning which contributes to haze.

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