THE haze hanging over Sarawak today carries an important message about climate change and carbon. We can have strong environmental policies within our borders, protect our forests, reduce emissions and invest in clean energy, but the atmosphere does not recognise political boundaries.
Smoke produced hundreds of kilometres away can enter Sarawak within hours. Carbon released by a forest fire in another country enters the same atmosphere we all share. The present haze is therefore not only an air-pollution problem. It is also a carbon problem — and an opportunity for Sarawak to consider the next stage of its climate policy.
Current regional monitoring shows moderate to dense smoke plumes from fires in Kalimantan moving northwards into parts of Sarawak, Sabah and Brunei. Sarawak has consequently experienced very unhealthy and, in Serian, temporarily hazardous air quality. The situation became serious enough for an emergency to be declared in Serian before it was lifted on September 7 as conditions improved.
The distinction is important. Sarawak cannot prevent every fire outside its jurisdiction, nor can it control the wind. Yet when smoke from Kalimantan reaches Kuching, Serian or elsewhere in Sarawak, our people experience the consequences.
Children stay indoors, schools are affected, outdoor workers face health risks, businesses suffer and families worry about elderly relatives. The environmental problem may begin elsewhere, but part of its social and economic cost is ultimately paid here.
This should not make us pessimistic about Sarawak’s green agenda. In fact, it demonstrates why the direction Sarawak has already taken on carbon is increasingly relevant.
Sarawak has been developing a comprehensive carbon-management framework rather than treating climate change simply as an environmental slogan. The state has established legislation for greenhouse-gas management, created a legal framework for forest-carbon activities, developed carbon-market mechanisms and pursued carbon capture, renewable energy and cleaner-energy technologies.
Sarawak has also set a long-term goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. From 2026, it is introducing a carbon levy for regulated facilities in the oil, gas and energy sectors. Revenue from the levy is intended for a dedicated Climate Change Fund supporting renewable energy, energy efficiency, grid modernisation, forest conservation and climate-resilience programmes.
The state has also allocated resources towards its Net Zero Strategy and Carbon Plan, carbon-pricing studies and efforts to quantify the carbon stored in its forests.
These are significant steps. They show that Sarawak is not waiting for climate change to become somebody else’s
responsibility. We are creating institutions, regulations and financial instruments to manage carbon more systematically.
But the present haze suggests that the next evolution of this policy should include what might be called the haze factor.
The connection is straightforward. When forests and peatlands burn, they do not produce smoke alone. They also release enormous quantities of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Recent fires across Indonesia demonstrate the scale involved. According to reporting based on the European Union’s Copernicus monitoring service, Indonesian fires released about 17.1 million tonnes of carbon emissions over one recent week during the current fire crisis.
The visible haze eventually disappears. The carbon does not.
That is why haze prevention should increasingly be viewed as carbon management. Preventing peat and forest fires avoids smoke, protects public health and prevents large quantities of greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. In carbon terms, preventing fires can be as important as capturing emissions after they occur.
Sarawak is well placed to understand this through its forests. The state is increasingly recognising forests not only as timber resources, but as natural assets that store carbon, protect biodiversity and support communities. Its forest-carbon framework, use of technology to measure carbon absorption, and emphasis on restoration and conservation reflect this transition.
Sarawak could take this further by integrating haze risk into its climate strategy. Part of the Climate Change Fund could support satellite monitoring, air-quality sensors, peatland fire-risk mapping, smoke-movement research and rapid-response systems in vulnerable areas. These measures cannot prevent fires elsewhere but can provide better information and more time to protect communities.
A regional approach is also needed. ASEAN’s transboundary haze agreement provides a foundation for cooperation.
Connecting regional haze prevention with carbon finance could help fund peatland protection, forest restoration and fire prevention, particularly in high-risk areas of Borneo, with proper monitoring, transparency and safeguards.
Sarawak would not be paying simply because smoke entered our skies. Rather, governments, communities, companies and climate-finance institutions could work together to make preventing carbon emissions financially more attractive than allowing degraded land to burn.
Sarawak’s growing expertise in carbon markets could support this effort. The state has established a legal framework for forest-carbon activities, is promoting transparent carbon trading based on accepted standards, and has worked with the World Bank on carbon-market development. This experience could contribute to wider Borneo cooperation on forest protection and avoided fire emissions.
We should also avoid turning the haze into a Sarawak-versus-Indonesia issue. Indonesia is suffering severely from the fires and is deploying personnel, aircraft and water-bombing operations while investigating fires in concession areas.
Cooperation, rather than finger-pointing, is the better approach. Sarawak and Kalimantan share the same island, ecosystems and forests. A healthier Borneo benefits everyone.
The long-term goal should be a low-carbon Borneo where conservation, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy and economic growth coexist.
Traditionally, governments measure emissions produced within their own jurisdiction because they must be accountable for what they can control. But climate resilience also requires understanding emissions and environmental risks originating beyond our borders that nevertheless affect our people.
Sarawak’s future Climate Change Centre, intended to coordinate research, policy and climate data, could play an important role in addressing this regional dimension. It could integrate satellite information, hotspot data, carbon-emission estimates, weather forecasts and air-quality readings into a single regional risk picture.
Eventually, Sarawak could develop its own Haze and Carbon Risk Index. Rather than simply reporting today’s API reading, it could indicate where fires are developing, how much carbon may be released, where smoke is likely to travel and which communities face the greatest risk in the days ahead.
This would move us from reacting to haze towards anticipating it.
The next challenge is carbon that crosses borders.
Perhaps that is the real lesson written across our hazy skies today. Sarawak may not have started the fires whose smoke reaches us, and we cannot extinguish them alone. But we can help build a regional system where preventing fires, protecting forests and keeping carbon in the ground have economic and environmental value.
A low-carbon future cannot be created by one state or country acting alone. Sarawak can lead at home while encouraging stronger cooperation with our neighbours.
The haze will clear. What should remain is determination to go beyond masks, closed windows and waiting for rain.
Our next chapter is clear: protect our carbon, strengthen resilience and work together to keep Borneo’s carbon in its forests, not our skies.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune.
