ASEAN Must Act With Greater Urgency On Haze - Dr Jemilah
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 12 (Bernama) -- ASEAN must act with greater urgency, persistence and determination to tackle recurring transboundary haze, said Prof Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood.
The Sunway University's Sunway Centre for Planetary Health executive director said the region’s cooperation during humanitarian emergencies, including tsunamis and typhoons, showed its capacity for collective action, citing its humanitarian assistance centre and regional disaster management agreement.
“We’ve done it before; we’ve been able to move on the disaster management front. This climate change, the haze, pollution is a major disaster,” she said during the “The Science of Global Tipping Points” plenary at the Global Tipping Points Conference 2026 (GTP2026) here today.
The conference was graced by the Sultan of Perak Sultan Nazrin Shah.
The plenary also featured founding director of the Global Systems Institute at the University of Exeter, England, Prof Tim Lenton; director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Professor in Earth System Science at the University of Potsdam, Germany, Prof Dr Johan Rockström; and director of Climate and Health at the London-based global charitable foundation, Wellcome, Prof Alan Dangour.
Dr Jemilah also noted her centre was training young people in diplomacy and negotiation, with the aim of having the government include them in official delegations and allow them to participate actively.
She urged policymakers, businesses and universities to give young people meaningful roles in policy discussions and on boards, rather than limit their participation to token representation.
“We just need to create the opportunities and space for them. They know what to do,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dangour said that Wellcome was working with Jemilah on the Southeast Asia DREAMS project, which would bring more than 50 million pounds to the region for research on climate change and human health.
He said the project would support new research hubs and groups working collaboratively across ASEAN countries, drawing on expertise and solutions already available in the region.
Dangour said action could proceed at national and regional levels alongside international negotiations, stressing that existing evidence and frameworks needed to be translated into implementation.
“We have lots of science, we have lots of evidence, but we really need to move to implementation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Lenton said clean energy transitions must include safeguards for vulnerable communities, pointing to Malaysia as among the countries with examples of social safety nets to protect those most at risk.
He said the benefits of cleaner energy should be weighed against the substantial health harms caused by fossil fuels, while governance should minimise new environmental and social risks arising from the transition.
The four-day conference, which runs until Oct 15, marks the series’ first gathering in Asia and brings together participants from various fields to examine environmental risks and ways to accelerate positive change.
-- BERNAMA
