BALI: Malaysians must brace for a worsening haze situation in the years to come as the world climate heats up. 

The drier and hotter climate will mean more droughts for Indonesia and when peatland there burns up, they can account for 8% of carbon emissions globally. 

Health hazard: Haze from peat fires in Indonesia blanketing Penang last month.

According to Indonesian Meteorology and Geophysics Agency secretary Andi Eka Sakya, climatic changes could mean more droughts in the future, particularly in peatland areas such as those in Sumatra and Kalimantan. Higher temperatures are also forecast.  

“We are aware of this and that is why we have put in a fire danger rating system to better forecast bushfires.  

“However, we do not have enough air monitoring stations in the country which can act as an early-warning system for any disaster, such as haze. 

“We only have 37 air monitoring stations in the country, six of which are in Jakarta. All our other stations have to send their data to Jakarta to be processed, which will take two weeks,” he said on the sidelines of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) here yesterday. 

Andi, who is attending the meeting as a UN observer, said Malaysia had 58 stations, although it was a smaller country. 

He also said that the Indonesian government was better equipped now to isolate bushfires in peatland, particularly after 1996/97. 

“During those years, the bushfires were very bad. Now, we have managed to reduce the number and width of the areas burning,” he said. 

Haze, which is caused by bushfires in mainly peatland in Sumatra and Kalimantan, has become a yearly occurrence when monsoon winds blow the smoke over to Malaysia, Singapore, and the southern part of Thailand. 

Faizal Parish from the Global Environment Centre, which is based in Malaysia, said the public could expect a reduction in rainfall during the dry season and more prolonged droughts with higher temperatures. 

“There will be more peatland fires in the future. Although transboundary pollution contributes highly to haze in Malaysia, we can see more fires burning up our peatland too. 

“According to the Forestry Department, 90% of bushfires take place on peatland, particularly those in Selangor, Pahang and Sarawak. 

“Natural peatland doesn't catch fire, but those that have been drained of water for agricultural projects and palm oil plantations will,” he said. 

Wetlands International senior programme manager Marcel Silvius said despite peatland in Malaysia and Indonesia covering only some 0.1% of the global surface, they emit some two billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide whenever they burn or 8% of the carbon emissions in the world. 

“This is because natural peatland absorbs carbon dioxide in the atmosphere very well. In fact, they absorb twice the amount compared to forests,” he said.