KUALA LUMPUR: Companies responsible for open burning, leading to the decline of air quality, should be exposed and held accountable by the media and environmental non-governmental organisations.
Such measure should be considered as a deterrent, considering the extent of damages caused by haze.
Environmentalist and member of Petaling Jaya Green City task force Anthony Tan Kee Huat said such exposure would have a significant impact especially if the companies had subsidiaries operating in foreign countries.
"There is also a need to mobilise minority shareholders of plantation companies with strong sustainability commitments to raise environmental, social and governance concerns during their annual general meetings.
"Unfortunately, Asean solidarity is something that looks good to the outside world but has not been able to come up with a strong joint statement on climate change," said Tan.
He made the call following the government's decision against the drafting of the Transboundary Haze Act (THA) proposed at taking action against Malaysian companies or individuals that cause haze in the country, regardless of where the burning occurred.
Greenpeace reported around 110,000 deaths occur annually from pollution-related illnesses, stemming from haze.
During the 2015 the haze crisis, the Indonesian government suffered between US$16 billion and US$28 billion in losses, with air traffic was forced to be redirected.
Ecological Association of Malaysia president Professor Dr Ahmad Ismail said it was challenging to enforce laws related to transboundary haze.
He said developing comprehensive laws to address transboundary pollution would require significant time and effort.
"It might take a long time to process developing the law. Data and experts are essential components of this process," he said.
While laws were necessary to guide solutions, he said there were already many international agreements and discussions related to climate change, carbon emissions and temperature rise.
He proposed more extensive discussions on collaboration to prevent forest fires and haze.
"With the availability of technologies for fire detection and the presence of experts to combat fires, we can potentially resolve these issues," he said.