Comprehensive Strategy to Protect Our Environment

Dr Sarah Liao
Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Work

The CE has outlined his strategy and specific measures to fight pollution in his Policy Address, promising carrots and sticks for everyone from the general public to big industries, spurring them to put their acts together to clean up the environment on all fronts with special emphasis on air quality.

Whilst there are reports on foreign investors opting out of HK owing to air pollution, for me as the policy secretary, whatever investors’ reasons may be for staying or going, the important truth is that we have always put the well-being of our people as our first priority. Like all metropolises, combating environmental pollution resulting from economic activities is a long term undertaking requiring good strategies, perseverance and public support. I would like to share with you our strategies.

• We adopt forward looking policies to set clear targets and milestones, taking into full consideration the need to strike a balance between protecting the environment and sustaining economic and social development, while harnessing technological advancement and economic tools to accelerate their attainment.
• We strive to adopt the polluter pays principle to internalize social costs and to incentive people to pollute less.
• Where the market fails to find a solution on its own, the Government will intervene.  Where appropriate, we will resort to legislative options.
• We promote community participation by raising awareness and devise practical response plans to tackle critical and difficult situations.

In line with these strategies, we started to strengthen our cooperation with the Guangdong Provincial Government in the early 1990s. In 2003 we agreed with them on the Regional Air Quality Management Plan for the Pearl River Delta (PRD)which aims to reduce the SO2, NOx, RSP and Volatile Organic Compounds by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55 % by 2010 using 1997 as the baseline year.  The collaboration is at all levels.  At the technical level, the joint team has put up a 16-station continuous monitoring network for air quality in the PRD. One can now have online access to air pollution index. We have been working together to establish an emissions trading pilot scheme to harness the market forces which have accelerated pollution reduction in other countries. We share experience in how our transport policies, which govern the provision of reliable public transport services to serve 95% of the commuters and facilitate the continuous migration to available cleaner technology, have worked to reduce vehicular pollution.

The dichotomy that exists between economic development and the environment has been known and managed in the past two decades. We know and accept the importance of balancing their mutual existence, as expressed under the concept of sustainable development. The implementation of the construction waste charging scheme has been put off since 1995 because of the relevant trades’ protests. It took 10 years to revive the scheme which finally got passed and implemented in early this year.  That results in a 36% reduction in construction waste ending up in our landfill!  The CE is determined to adhere to the polluter pays principle in our sewage treatment and solid waste disposal – a litmus test is for the legislature to honour their same commitment in the coming session. The principle will also apply to the power companies as exceedance of their emission caps for their power generators are going to tie with a heavy pricetag.

To reduce some 10% of the total NOx and 18% of RSP pollution in HK which are attributable to commercial diesel vehicles, the Government intends to provide owners of 74,000 commercial vehicles of pre-Euro or Euro I standards with a subsidy if they replace their vehicles with Euro IV models. These are mainly delivery vans and trucks and cross boundary haulers which are suffering from high fuel costs and keen competition from their Mainland counterparts. Without a subsidy they are likely to hang on to their old vehicles for much longer. We need to give them some incentive which will tide them through this difficult period, in order not to slow down our plan to improve the air quality.

The other carrot is to lure private car owners who want to do their part to save the environment. The maximum HK$50,000 concession for FRT is welcomed. There should be enough brands in the market to allow adequate choices.

We have enlisted the support of many schools and businesses to take part in the Action Blue Sky campaign.  We have also solicited the participation of some 1.7 million of our population in our waste separation at source programme.  The challenge is for our community to adopt environmental stewardship at all levels.  We have to continue to encourage people to keep up with their efforts.  Do you know we have planted 7.3 million trees in the past 3 years and the programme will continue?  Good news is also news!