Indonesia and the region must be prepared, both materially and psychologically, for a possible worsening of the haze situation, given both the persistence of burning practices and the blight of climate change. In 2013, a record Pollutant Standards Index reading of 401 in Singapore elicited gasps of environmental disbelief even from those who had come to accept the recurrent problem as a sad fact of regional life. For now, the situation is not as bad as it was then. But what if it gets worse?

On September 9th, President Joko Widodo announced the first of three Indonesia economic policy packages to bolster economic growth amid prolonged economic slowdown and continued depreciation of the rupiah. The stimulus package looks to revise up to 89 regulations that are considered to be hampering business development in the country. Among those to be deregulated are regulations on industrial zones and bureaucracy issues.