The PM2.5 situation in the nation has become serious enough to warrant PM Paetongtarn Shinawatra holding a press conference earlier this week to clarify the government's action plans for goals on the issue.
She told the assembled media she had demanded that this year's pollution level must be lower than in 2024. She has also instructed the responsible ministries to prevent open burning on mass plantations and sugar farms.
Meanwhile, she said, the Transport Ministry has been ordered to monitor large vehicles emitting excessive exhaust fumes and implement strict controls on them.
While her decisive commandments are praiseworthy, it begs the question of whether such a stopgap approach will match the scale of the problem.
And despite these well-intended targets, the reality so far this year in terms of reduced hotspots is hardly inspiring.
This week, only seven out of 77 provinces in Thailand had safe air to breathe, and most, including the capital, were blanketed with "red" levels of hazardous ultra-fine dust.
Bangkok governor Chadchart Sittipunt even had to step in and ask the Department of Royal Rainmaking and Agricultural Aviation to make artificial rain to disperse the polluting dust.
A report from government agencies on the number and severity of hotspots is also conflicting.
The data Ms Paetongtarn cited showed that last year, 70% of dust pollution came from agricultural burning, but this year, that share has fallen to 30–35% thanks to the cooperation of farmers under the guidance of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives in a bid to reduce burning.
Yet satellite data from Gistda, the Thai space agency, shows that on Jan 5 alone, there were still 490 hotspots -- 171 in rice paddies, 110 in forested areas, 44 in sugar fields, 20 in maize farms, 73 in general farms, and 72 cases of open burning in general areas.
While various analysts chew over all the data, the best measurement is likely the effect on the general public.
So is the government taking this issue seriously enough? The answer is a resounding no.
To effectively tackle air pollution, Parliament needs to pass the so-called Clean Air bill.
Indeed, the drafts of two environmental laws -- including the Clean Air bill and the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register (PRTR) bill -- have been proposed by civic groups since 2023.
However, they got scant attention from the previous administrations of Prayut Chan-o-cha and then Srettha Thavisin.
The Clean Air Act would impose a financial penalty on polluters, while the PRTR would force the industrial and farming sectors to reveal the emissions from their supply chains and clarify their harvesting processes.
Right now, the government is only asking for private-sector cooperation. There are no legal mandatory or even market mechanisms forcing feedstock and food companies to purchase only sustainable products -- rather than those that rely on open burning during harvesting.
Such an idea is not far-fetched. Indeed, Ms Paetongtarn and her father, former PM Thaksin, stated a few years ago that Thai agro businesses must not purchase farm products derived from open burning.
Ms Paetongtarn needs to introduce a zero-burning policy to tackle PM2.5 pollution rather than leave the public with a lot of (heavily polluted) hot air.