China's Energy Crisis Blankets Hong Kong in Smog
By Katie Hunt
September 17, 2004

HONG KONG (Reuters) - To gaze across Hong Kong's harbor at the city's glittering skyscrapers and soaring peaks is to take in one of the world's most spectacular urban vistas.

When you can see it.

The "fragrant harbor" from which Hong Kong takes its name is often shrouded in toxic smog.

Hong Kong's air pollution hit a record high on September 14, with the index rising to over 200 for the first time since air quality monitoring was introduced in 1995. Doctors advised asthma sufferers and those with heart disease to stay indoors.

"I don't see any reason why it will improve. The trend is really alarming," said Alexis Lau, acting director of the Center for Coastal and Atmosphere Research and a professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

Experts lay the blame for Hong Kong's worsening air pollution on China, which the World Health Organization (news - web sites) says has seven of the world's 10 most polluted cities.

Most of the pollution cloaking Hong Kong is generated by coal-fired power plants and smokestacks from China's industrial south, as well as traffic fumes from the city's own congested streets.

ENERGY SHORTAGE

China faces a chronic energy shortage and making the switch from coal-fired plants to cleaner fuel is costly and disruptive.

It is the second consecutive summer that factories have faced brownouts or managed power cuts. Residents have been urged to turn off their electricity-guzzling air conditioners despite the sweltering heat.

Double-digit growth in individual car ownership in the neighboring province of Guangdong compounds the problem.

In Hong Kong, the number of days a year when visibility falls below 8 km (5 miles) has risen from around 50 in 1993 to over 160 last year. Nearby Shenzhen and Macau have seen similar increases, according to data provided by Lau.

This week, pollution was worst near Hong Kong's airport, where planes took off and landed in an orange-tinged haze. One day in August, visibility in Hong Kong harbour fell to as low as 550 meters (600 yards) and smog contributed to collisions on the water involving eight vessels.

The problem is set to get worse this winter when prevailing northern winds sweep the sulphur dioxide and other toxins belched out of China's smokestacks toward Hong Kong, said Lau.

But not all of Hong Kong's residents are worried about the deterioration in air quality.

"I think the pollution is more or less the same. I can't say I think about it too much," said Wong Wai Ming, a delivery man who spends four to five hours outside each day.

MORE SMOG

Hong Kong has taken several steps to reduce pollution in the past decade, including conversion of taxis to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). Air pollution readings are taken hourly and are a regular feature of weather forecasts.

"For roadside pollution we've seen a significant improvement but regional pollution seems to be deteriorating. There's more smog than before," said Raymond Leung, principal environmental protection officer.

Activists say the city's pro-business leaders are not doing enough. They say the government should do more about idling vehicles and introduce electronic road pricing to reduce congestion.

"I've heard of people saying that they will consider leaving Hong Kong because of the bad pollution," said Edwin Lau, assistant director of Friends of the Earth (news - web sites) (HK).

"Tourism is a huge part of our economy and if the pollution deterred tourists it would be a big loss," he added.

Electricity provider CLP Holdings, which steadily reduced its emission of pollutants in the 1990s, reversed progress last year by burning 50 percent more coal than in 2002 and cutting its use of gas, a cleaner fuel.

Reserves in the South China Sea gas field on which it relied were overestimated,. forcing it to burn more coal to meet rising demand here and in China but CLP said it would maintain a balanced fuel mix of coal, gas and nuclear in the long run.

Another problem in battling the smog is the thorny issue of cooperation with China. Priorities in the former British colony, where public concern over the environment has grown in recent years, differ from those over the border.

China's leaders are aware of the environmental price of breakneck growth but their main priority is to ensure a strong economy to help ease a labor glut.

To reduce regional air pollution, Hong Kong and the Guangdong provincial government have set a target to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide in the Pearl River Delta by 40 percent by 2010.

"It's a big challenge -- due to economic growth in the area there's much higher demand for electricity," said Leung.

too bad.... :D
come to perth its very clean here ;)

Reducing regional air pollution is really nothing, environment has nothing to do with political borders, they should help improving air quality for the whole country and other poor Asian countries.
What Chinese people care about is just money, how stupid. Ya, keep on saving money by burning coal and see what's the meaning of "money" when sea level rises above!! :no:

Coal burning is still a major source of energy not just in China, but also in the West. Pollution is a worldwide problem. It's even more problematic in developing countries because there is a lot of industry that spews pollutants into the air and water. Do we make a trade-off between development and wealth? Build less and have more people starve and live in poverty in order to pollute less? It becomes a very tricky question, doesn't it?

Bad news for HK, I hope things will get better! In HK seems to be a lot possible, why can't they make the step to not poluting energy-production? It will make the city more popular by tourists, residents and investors, so I think the extra costs will come back fast!

HK, city of life, to make that treu they really have to do something about it.

Let HK be a good example for the whole world!

coal burning is supplying most of autralia's energy too , and lots of coal in china comes from australia.

Welcome to HK, your air pollution reading today is...201

BYLINE: Cheung Chi-fai
September 15, 2004 - South China Morning Post

An aircraft comes in to land at Chek Lap Kok airport yesterday through dense smog that cloaked the area and produced a record high air pollution reading of 201 in nearby Tung Chung.

It was the first time the Air Pollution Index had topped 200 in the Lantau new town and the Environmental Protection Department issued the first severe air pollution warning since air quality monitoring was introduced in 1995.

The reading came on a day when air quality was poor across the city and the index at roadside stations in Mongkok and Central stayed above 100 for most of the time.

The record reading was taken at 3pm but it dropped to 182 in the next hour. It was attributed to ozone pollution, which topped at 402 micrograms per cubic metre at 3pm, 67 per cent higher than levels laid down by the Environmental Protection Department.

World Health Organisation guidelines say exposure to an ambient ozone concentration of more than 120 micrograms per cubic metre for eight hours will result in health problems.

A high concentration of ozone can lead to eye irritations, coughing and even chromosome changes.

Alexis Lau Kai-hon, associate professor at the Centre of Coastal and Atmospheric Research at the University of Science and Technology, said he was pessimistic about the deterioration of air quality.

"It is not just a reading of 201 that makes me worried. I am also worried about the increasing frequency of high readings," he said.

Data provided by Professor Lau shows there have been 14 days of pollution readings above 100 so far this year in Tung Chung, compared with 12 last year, 13 in 2002, seven in 2001 and five in 2000.

Professor Lau said he observed pollutants drifting into the city from the mainland in a weak northwesterly wind.

He added that development in the Pearl River Delta had worsened regional ozone pollution.

A spokesman for the department said the bad air quality was due to calm and sunny weather.

Coal burning is still a major source of energy not just in China, but also in the West. Pollution is a worldwide problem. It's even more problematic in developing countries because there is a lot of industry that spews pollutants into the air and water. Do we make a trade-off between development and wealth? Build less and have more people starve and live in poverty in order to pollute less? It becomes a very tricky question, doesn't it?


Yes, i agree with what you said, development is important. But I'm afraid it's not the case for Mainland China. Yes, China is building skyscrapers and becoming more industrialized everyday, yet more than half of the office buildings in Pudong are empty, let alone the other mainland cities. The cost of those buildings can help tremendously to the poors, as well as improving its environmental problems. If China uses its money wisely, it won't turn the country as today. I don't want to sound like a nimby, but it's just absurd to build something that's functionless and harmful to the natural environment.

That are wise words Sher...

Actually, the vacancy rate in Shanghai is quite low, around 11% the last time I checked and lower than New York Midtown. The supply glut in the 1990s was a classic case of a economic bubble, just like the high-tech one that bursted in the US a few years ago.

Since China is now transitioning into a market economy, there is very little mechanism in place to control development, let alone spread it evenly across the country. In fact, no modern country is able to do such a thing effectively. Do you refuse investment? In China's case of course not. Do you force investment to under-developed areas? Practically it's impossible to do. Market forces will ultimately prevail.

While efficiency and equal development are very nice ideals to have for any economy, developing or developed, it is practically impossible to achieve. In fact, we live in a very imperfect economy. A lot of our economic activities are wasteful but we have to live with them. That doesn't mean we shouldn't strive to improve, though. But for a country of over a billion to industrialize and modernize, expect a whole slew of problems. The Europeans didn't industrialize very cleanly either. Thank goodness environmentalism is so much more powerful today than a hundred years ago.

Well I think some places in China already industrialized already. Like Guangdong province, the places around pacific ocean, the four biggest cities...etc. They have enough money to competite on the tallest building in the world, build world exhibition centres, world class museums...etc, how come not just use a little money to do better on power plants, the power supply system of their city? Well I think there's still some place that is still under development, but some places are already have enough money and develop enough. Why don't use some money to help the world, but use them to decorate the city. In summer I have a trip to guangdong province, and the tourist guide say that guangdong province have a policy is that cities have to be "1 year small change, 3 years middle change, 5 years a big change"(一年一小變, 三年一中變, 五年一大變). Therefore cities' government just spend money on decorating to achieve this policy, making cosmetics to old buildings, so when central government comes to inspect, it can cheat on it.

I think a city with clean air, trees, is better then a city that can't see the sky. Develop is needed, but at least do a little thing useful...just little bit, to let the sky clearer

BTW, HKskyline, where do you find office building infos about different cities? Vacancy infos..etc? Thanks~

Unfortunately, with uneven economic development comes infrastructure pressures. At the urban planning level, rapidly-growing cities often can't cope with so many cars, such as Beijing and Bangkok. The same phenomenon occurs at the aggregate level, such as the power grid problems that are surfacing this year. The best solution will include both spending money to expand the grid and also teach conservation. North America is also going through a similar problem after last year's big blackout on the east coast.

Office vacancy rates are calculated by many real estate advisory agencies worldwide, such as Colliers, CB Richard Ellis, and Jones Lang LaSalle. They publish reports on a regular basis (monthly / quarterly) talking about commercial and residential real estate developments, vacancy rates, and price trends. Most of them are available on their websites.

What clean energy possibilities are there in PRD? I think there is not enough wind for windmills is there? Maybe sun-energy? Or is there another possibility?

Maybe HK could make a small step by building more ecological skyscrapers with less energyconsumption and mostly better living conditions. (Ken Yeang)

The incalculable cost of pollution
Colum Murphy, Hong Kong Standard

It's a sunny Monday afternoon in Hong Kong. A small white cloud sits over Victoria Peak, clearly visible across the harbour, and last week's smoggy skies are just an ugly memory.

But as the haze clears, the cost of pollution kicks in.

Experts say the short-term health costs of poor air quality alone exceeds HK$700 million a year. Factor in lost productivity arising from greater absenteeism, and lost investment and tourism revenue, and the figure rises fivefold, according to one government estimate.

Scientists from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong University concluded in a study two years ago that bad air quality can be linked to increased hospital admissions and respiratory ailments.

"Normally there is a lag period of between one and three days before the effects of pollution begin to emerge and are reflected in terms of mortality and hospital admissions,'' says Professor Tze-Wai Wong, one of the study's authors.

Based on that study, Hong Kong University health economist Dr Sarah McGhee estimates that additional hospital admissions cost about HK$60 million annually and increased visits to doctors another HK$650 million.

Short-term health costs represent only part of total pollution-related costs.

The Department of Health says it has no way of estimating how many medical certificates issued by doctors are for people with pollution-related illnesses.

Yet the impact on employers and employees is very real. Deborah Morgan, regional manager for recruitment firm Manpower, says the effect of high air pollution on employees is significant. "Often there is no direct impact on the day of the high pollution levels, but it can become evident several days afterwards,'' she says, adding that poor air quality affects the amount of sick leave employees take and even staff retention levels.

Tallying the long-term costs of air pollution is even more difficult. The most comprehensive government calculation, which includes the costs of lost productivity and is based on data from the mid 1990s, puts air pollution costs at just under HK$4 billion annually.

"Air pollution can cut life short ... and the long-term costs for this in terms of lost productivity and impact on families is very significant,'' says HKU's McGhee.

Calculating the costs is one thing, getting people to pay is an entirely different matter.

One idea involves the "polluter pays'' principle, under which those deemed responsible for damaging the environment are charged.

Chairman of the Sustainable Development Council, Edgar Cheng, announced on Monday that his office has received close to 700 public submissions supporting the adoption of such an approach.

Yet it remains unclear how such a mechanism would work and who should pay.

"First of all, you'd have to look at whether you charge the power companies or the customers,'' says CLP Power's commercial director Richard Lancaster. "The end users would be the ones that rightfully should be charged.''

Mei Ng of the Friends of the Earth says she supports "polluter pays'' but adds that definitions must be expanded to include things such as losses that could arise if tourists decide to shun Hong Kong's fume-filled streets.

21 September 2004 / 02:59 AM

Copyright 2004 South China Morning Post Ltd.
September 24, 2004
SECTION: News; Pg. 17

A green model for Asia?

Looking at Victoria Harbour blanketed with a brown haze, my thoughts took me back to the rosy picture presented by Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa some five years ago. Depicted as the "greenest" policy address so far, the 1999 blueprint, entitled "Quality People, Quality Home", mapped out how to combat air pollution. It promised that the government would cut the number of respirable suspended particulates from vehicles by 60 per cent by last year, and 80 per cent by next year, as well as reduce vehicle emissions by 30 per cent by next year.

The government provided grants to encourage owners of diesel vehicles to switch to cleaner fuels, although the results have been mixed. Over the past few years, we have also seen more pedestrianised zones appearing, and stronger action taken against polluting vehicles.

Despite all this, the city is still shrouded in smog. Experts warn that the problem will get worse during winter, when the prevailing northerly winds sweep the blanket of toxins down from the Pearl River Delta. Clearly, Hong Kong is still far from being an "ideal home and green model for Asia". (Again, a catchphrase in the 1999 address).

China is facing a chronic energy shortage, and cities like Guangzhou are increasingly switching back to coal-fired plants which use poor-quality coal. This, naturally, will increase the amount of pollution in the atmosphere. What is more, analysts are quick to point to the increasing number of vehicles in the delta as another reason for Hong Kong's smog. Since 1980, that figure has been growing at a rate of 20 per cent annually in many urban areas. Today, there are estimated to be between 18 and 21 million vehicles in China. As the economy continues to improve, by 2010, that is expected to more than double to 44-50 million.

However, it is too soon to conclude that Hong Kong has done all it can to alleviate the problem. The government is fulfilling its pledges to combat polluting vehicles. But what about a more extensive greening of the environment? There is ample evidence that tree planting in urban areas not only provides a "feel-good" factor, but can also help alleviate the greenhouse effect. However, these tasks come under the mandate of the Leisure and Cultural Services Department, whose emphasis is to enhance the visual impact to the city, rather than setting its sights on air quality. Instead, we need a cross-departmental vision, and a strategy to better align the greening effort.

As pollution knows no boundaries, any solutions need to look beyond the Shenzhen River. One way would be to instil a more environmentally sustainable design into cross-boundary infrastructure plans.

Officials recognise that the pollutants blown down from the western part of the delta have badly affected Tung Chung, and the area around Chek Lap Kok. If the Zhuhai bridge project uses northwestern Lantau as a landing point, imagine the effect of all the extra vehicle emissions on the already burgeoning pollution problems. In order to promote the use of mass-transit transport, Hong Kong should take the advice of some mainland experts, who want to see a rail option in the gigantic bridge project.

Another potential problem will be the Shenzhen-Hong Kong Western Corridor, due for completion in early 2006. Hong Kong and the mainland have very diverse institutional frameworks, and to initiate aggressive cross-border co-operation will certainly be difficult. But the truth is that we cannot afford to fail. The alternative is to see the region's medical bills escalate and risk losing foreign investment in the long run.Zandra Mok Yee-tuen is a researcher at the Hong Kong Policy Research Institute

Some days ago I read about the fact that people in Chinese cities die much earlier then in the farmland. Life expectations droped to 55 years, in farmland this was about 75...

China and HK really have to take action to stop water and air polution. On the long term this is the best option! Introduce hydro-oxigen soon, it is easier to do it now then in 2010, because then there are more cars on other fuels!

What about off-shore windmillparks? Enough sea to build huge ones in the sea!

off shore? your crazy they cost heaps just to put it there!

In the Netherlands we will build one in the northsea soon, about 30 km out of the coastline. But I think the sea is less deep here.

Hong Kong Government Press Release - September 25, 2004
New network to monitor regional air quality

Hong Kong and Guangdong will set up a new information network before year's end to monitor the Pearl River Delta's air quality, Permanent Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Keith Kwok says.

Speaking on a radio talk show today, Mr Kwok admitted that it is not an easy task to solve the regional pollution problem.

However he stressed that both Hong Kong and Guangdong Province governments are dedicated to improve the air quality of the region. The two places reached an agreement in April 2002 with an aim to reduce the regional emissions of four major air pollutants by 2010.

Achieving the targets will significantly reduce the occurrence of smog in the region, he added.

As a measure to improve our air quality, he said the Government is now seeking public's views on a proposal to introduce mandatory registration and labelling requirements for specified products that may contain volatile organic compounds.

The proposed scheme, if implemented, will require all paints, printing inks, and selected consumer products to be properly tested and registered.

They may be sold only with a label indicating their VOC contents and carrying the message, "VOCs Cause Air Pollution".

The proposed scheme will enable consumers to make informed choices when purchasing products with VOC contents, he said.

With the obvious advantage of reducing the emissions of harmful pollutants to the air, he said, the proposed scheme will not have much financial burden on the trade.

Two environment units to merge

Mr Kwok said, to improve service delivery and bring about efficiency gains in the area of environmental protection, the Government plans to merge the Environment Branch of the Environment, Transport & Works Bureau with the Environmental Protection Department with effect from April 1, 2005.

He said the merger will achieve synergy between policy formulation and implementation and will result in a net reduction of four directorate posts bringing about savings of $8.85 million a year in staff costs.

Copyright 2004 South China Morning Post Ltd.
September 26, 2004

Clean-air team on Guangdong mission Environment bureau steps up efforts to monitor and control emissions as pollution index climbs
Patsy Moy

With the pall of pollution thickening in recent weeks, Hong Kong officials have made plans to travel to Guangdong for discussions on how to control the problem.

"We will send a team up to Guangdong to observe their power stations and other sources of the pollutants, to hammer out measures to control the emission of pollutants," Permanent Secretary for the Environment Keith Kwok Ka-keung said yesterday.

Speaking on a Commercial Radio programme, Mr Kwok acknowledged that rapid industrial development in the Pearl River Delta had worsened air quality.

But Green Power chief executive officer Man Chi-sum said it would be more effective for Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to speak directly with his Guangdong counterpart instead of relying on his officials. They might not be senior enough to press the mainland authorities to take action, he said.

Air Pollution Index readings remained high across the region yesterday.

By 3pm, the roadside readings hit 95 in Mongkok, 75 in Central and 69 in Causeway Bay.

Dr Man said there was an urgent need for Hong Kong to begin controlling pollution.

The city's pollution was likely to worsen in the coming months when the power stations in Guangdong responded to the surge in demand for heat in the winter.

Mr Kwok said Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta officials planned to set up a regional data-exchange network on air quality by the end of this year.

He said Hong Kong and Guangdong had stepped up their co-operation to tackle cross-border pollution since 2002, including setting up an index to monitor the emission of pollutants.

But he warned that Hong Kong could continue to have poor air quality as it would "take time to fix the problems".

On September 16, seven air-monitoring stations recorded readings above 100, while roadside readings topped 158 in Central and 126 in Causeway Bay.

At Tung Chung, where the register reached a record reading of 201 on September 14, the register peaked at 140 at 5pm.

"It is worrying that the air quality is already so poor before the pollution peak in winter," Dr Man said.

"More pollutants are likely to be carried down from Guangdong when the wind from the north becomes prevalent in winter time."

Dr Man said that besides Tung Chung, some parts of New Territories North such as Fanling, close to the border, would be the hardest hit.

"However, we are sceptical about the enthusiasm of the Guangdong authorities in controlling pollution as the economic consideration always outweighs the environment concern in the mainland," he said.

On Thursday, the government announced plans for the merger of the Environment Protection Department and its policy-making bureau, the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau.

The organisational shake-up is aimed at saving $ 8.85 million a year by bringing improvements in efficiency. The department will replace the bureau's present environmental branch from April 1.

The director's powers will be transferred to the permanent secretary for the environment.

Mr Kwok will take on the extra title of director of the 1,700-strong department.

good to see hk take action unlike china...

Any Pictures of Smoggy HK???

Hong Kong pollution is 'damaging economy'
By Victor Mallet in Hong Kong
Financial Times
Published: November 3 2004 22:02

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20041102/capt.sge.cfz25.021104170117.photo00.photo.default-256x384.jpg
AFP Photo

Worsening air pollution across China's Pearl River delta will further damage human health and ultimately threaten the region's economic growth unless there is aggressive remedial action, according to three reports to be published on Thursday by Civic Exchange, a Hong Kong think-tank.

In recent months smog has increasingly shrouded the industrialised delta, which is bad for tourism and people with respiratory problems.

The autonomous territory of Hong Kong and the Guangdong provincial government - which coyly refer to the smog as "haze" - agreed two years ago to try and cut air pollutants by up to 55 per cent by 2010 from the levels of 1997.

But the Civic Exchange reports say even the lax local air pollution targets are being exceeded and note that neither Hong Kong nor Guangdong monitors the fine suspended particulates regarded elsewhere as a serious health hazard.

"Without aggressive and consistent action, residents of the region will suffer unnecessary mortality and illness, and long-term economic growth will ultimately be threatened," says one of the reports, a white paper on regional air quality.

It calls for Hong Kong and Guangdong to release a progress report and fulfil their promise to establish a regional air quality monitoring network.

Although couched in diplomatic language, the report implies that secrecy in mainland China and lack of political will on both sides of the border have contributed to poor air quality.

Air pollution at 2002 levels is estimated to contribute to 800 premature deaths and 8,000 hospital admissions a year in Hong Kong, at a cost of HK$1.7bn ($220m, €170m, £120m).

Traffic pollution in Hong Kong has been curbed by stricter controls on vehicle emissions but general air pollution has worsened in the past two years as the Guangdong economy continues to grow. On September 14 this year Hong Kong's air pollution index hit a record 201 points near the international airport.

Greenpeace, the environmental pressure group, this week accused the Hong Kong government of hiding the severity of pollution by using outdated and non-binding air quality objectives. Greenpeace conducted monitoring for nine days and said that for most of the period pollutants such as respirable suspended particulates exceeded international standards by 200 per cent.

Edward Chan, a Greenpeace campaigner, said: "Our air quality is always two or three times worse than the European Union standard."

Sarah Liao, the Hong Kong environment secretary who had defended the government's record on air pollution, admitted last month that the situation had worsened in the past two years and that Hong Kong had limited leverage over the Guangdong power stations, factories and vehicles producing most of the pollution.

In addition to the white paper and its recommendations, Civic Exchange is publishing a detailed report on particulate matter in the Pearl River delta and a study of the economic costs of poor visibility, which are hard to quantify.

Christine Loh, who heads Civic Exchange, said it was up to the region to collect the appropriate data, train scientists and use the experience of others to develop the right policies. "Hong Kong and southern China now have the critical mass conditions to actually start doing it properly," she said. "Both Hong Kong and southern China are wealthy."

HK should start to introduce hydro oxigen as fuel for its traffic. I think HK is a good location for that! In the next five years they can start to fuel all busses by hydro oxigen, and a part of its taxis. Then they can start to introduce this for all private cars. This will solve a large part of the problem.

HK should start to introduce hydro oxigen as fuel for its traffic. I think HK is a good location for that! In the next five years they can start to fuel all busses by hydro oxigen, and a part of its taxis. Then they can start to introduce this for all private cars. This will solve a large part of the problem.

Are you talking about fuel-cell technology or hybrid vehicles? Fuel-cells are still not fully developed yet and really expensive at this stage. Hybrid buses would be a better option IMO.

Well, the only thing that can save mankind and the electric problems is "COLD FUSION" lets hope that they find that someday in this century, and the EARTH will be saved.

HK's bus companies are already bringing in buses that comply with EURO III and EURO IV regulations. However, it'll be interesting to see how fuel cells can power a double decker. Natural gas has already been ruled out because of reliability problems.

South China Morning Post
November 5, 2004

Taking the long view on smog
Cheung Chi-fai

http://www.hko.gov.hk/wxinfo/intersat/modis/vis/200411051403_HKS_VIS.jpeg

Visitors to the Hong Kong Observatory's website will have a clearer view of the city's pollution problems from today, thanks to images beamed by two satellites operated by the US space agency Nasa.

The Earth Observing System (EOS) satellites Terra and Aqua have been passing over the city twice a day since they were commissioned in 1999 and 2002.

Their high-resolution pictures show the distribution of haze, fog and clouds over the Pearl River Delta.

Weather forecasters say the bright white spots or patches in the pictures are clouds, while semi-transparent patches are either haze or fog, depending on the humidity at ground level.

"The pictures can show the changes of haze across the region," the Observatory's acting assistant director, Wai Hon-gor, said.

"When the easterly wind prevails, the image is usually crystal clear but it becomes a bit blurred when a northerly wind prevails."

Mr Wai said haze was frequently seen in the north-western delta region and gradually spread south into Hong Kong in northerly winds.

Power bills may rise 9pc to pay for clean air;
Public should be prepared to dig deeper if natural gas replaces coal: Sarah Liao

Cheung Chi-fai
9 November 2004
South China Morning Post

Power users should be prepared to pay as much as 9 per cent more on their electricity bills as the price for cleaner air, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung said yesterday.

Dr Liao told RTHK's Talkabout programme that there was room for power companies to use more natural gas than coal in electricity generation, to combat worsening air pollution.

But the public, the ultimate consumers of electricity, should also be prepared to pay if all the coal was to be replaced by natural gas.

Translated into actual tariffs, such an increase could mean a rise of from $0.862 to $0.939 per unit, though it was not clear yesterday whether the estimate took into account any new capital investment - such as the construction of natural gas storage facilities being proposed by CLP Power.

Gas-fired power production generates about 75 per cent fewer emissions than coal. It generates a negligible amount of sulfur dioxide, a fifth of the nitrogen oxides, and half the carbon dioxide that coal emits.

"It is all about the polluter-pays principle," Dr Liao said. "Every one of us is responsible for the air quality as we all consume electricity. And there is a price for that if we want to use cleaner fuel, like liquefied natural gas."

Last year CLP Power made a shift from its ideal fuel mix - one-third each of coal, nuclear and gas - after a 36 per cent decline in the gas supply through a 780km submarine pipeline from a reserve in Hainan.

To fill the gap, it used 50 per cent more coal and sought more nuclear energy from its mainland joint venture in Daya Bay.

Now about half its power is produced by coal, 20 per cent by gas and 30 per cent by nuclear generation. As a result, its sulfur dioxide emission, which has been declining over the past decade, has almost doubled to 51,000 tonnes.

As a proposed remedy, the power supplier is now planning to build a giant storage plant for liquefied natural gas (LNG) - either at Black Point or on the Soko Islands - so it can ship the cleaner fuel in from around the world.

Power generation in Hong Kong accounts for about 89 per cent of sulfur dioxide emissions in the city and 45 per cent of nitrogen oxides. But it is responsible for only about 10 per cent of the Pearl River Delta region's sulfur dioxide emissions.

Hongkong Electric is building a new LNG power plant on Lamma Island, which is expected to start operating in 2006.

Two gas-powered generation units at CLP Power's Black Point station will also open in the same year. CLP Power has the capacity to generate about 3,800 megawatts with natural gas.

Dr Liao said air quality was expected to improve in two to three years, once major power plants in the delta region installed devices that removed sulfur from flue gasses.

A spokeswoman for CLP Power said they had no comment on Dr Liao's remark.

Greenpeace said yesterday that the cost of cleaning up pollution should not be transferred to the consumer. It said the permitted rate of return for power companies should be reduced to fund the clean-up.

Meanwhile, Guangdong is determined to improve its air quality, Tang Bingquan, the deputy executive provincial governor of Guangdong, said yesterday. The province would close small-scale power plants as scheduled, while giving a significant boost to investment in wind, hydro, LNG, and nuclear power in coming years, he said.

i think i read numerous reports that say 80% of air pollution in HK comes from mainland china.

source: www.building.com.hk

(GUANGDONG PROVINCE -- 3 November 2004)
Sea windmill power station to be built at Nan'ao Island
Work has commenced in the island county of Nan'ao in Guangdong Province to build China's first sea windmill power station. The proposed power station will have a capacity of 275,500 kV, equivalent to half of the total capacity of windmill electricity currently generated in the country.
The project is a joint venture between Shantou Nan Fong Wind Energy Co Ltd and a Dutch consortium, and the total investment is RMB2.707 billion (US$326.14 million).

I remember whenever I stayed in Hongkong, I saw all the Taxis and busses didn't turn off the engine when they waited for costumers, sometimes for ten to twenty minutes. That would have been a law violation against the environment in Germany. Just imagine how much pollution could be avoided!

Hong Kong's Obligations Under Kyoto
Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (November 10):

Question:

It has been reported that the Russian President announced on 30 September this year that the Russian Government had endorsed a bill to ratify the Kyoto Protocol ("the Protocol") and the bill had been submitted to the Russian State Duma for approval. The Protocol will come into effect in Parties to the Protocol all over the world after the bill has been approved by the Russian State Duma, endorsed by the Upper House of Russian's Parliament and signed by the President. It will also be an important step taken by the international communities to counter threats posed by climate change to the world. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council

(a) how Hong Kong will fulfil its obligations after the Protocol comes into effect; and

(b) of the progress made by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in coordinating with the Central People's Government regarding the submission of reports to the United Nations, including how it will prepare the relevant reports, of the timetable for drafting the reports, the government departments responsible for the drafting work and the procedures for ratifying the draft reports?

Reply:

(a) & (b) The Central People's Government (CPG) notified the United Nations in May 2003 that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("the Convention") and its Kyoto Protocol ("the Protocol") were applicable to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). The Convention and the Protocol require the contracting parties to submit reports on greenhouse gas emissions to the United Nations from time to time. The Environment, Transport and Works Bureau will co-ordinate the submission of information on the situation in Hong Kong to the CPG in accordance with the framework and work schedule laid down by the CPG.

We visited HK last year and in 1993. We noticed that air quality had deteriorated a lot :bash:. We could never see the hills behind Kowloon.

Apart from visibility air pollution is very bad for ones health and very bad for the ecosystem. In Europe we have learned our lesson when Acid rain caused by emissions of SO2 and NOx was on its peak level. The cost for taking reductionmeasures isn't that high, also China can afford them.

On http://www.iiasa.ac.at/rains/index.html you can information about the RAINS-models which have been used in Europe for developing cost-effective abatement strategies. A couple of years ago Iiasa developed the RAINS-ASIA model, which has been used by Asian countries. So now we know what to do, just act now!

Erik

Not only China but whole Asia must act. It is a good thing to start very early with emission control,green taxes etc,green-energy.

Europe has showed that it works.

Greens step up fight for plastic bag tax
Sylvia Hui, Hong Kong Standard
November 27, 2004

Hong Kong shoppers use a staggering 24 million plastic bags a day, enough to blanket the entire 1,377 metre-long Tsing Ma Bridge, and environmental groups are trying to make them pay for it - much to the annoyance of supermarket giants ParknShop and Wellcome.

The supermarket chains, owned by two of Hong Kong's biggest trading companies, are seeking to block moves to impose a 50 HK cents plastic bag levy on their customers.

The 50-cent-a-bag pilot trial was proposed by the Green Student Council, a non-governmental organisation, and supported by the Environmental Protection Department in a bid to reduce Hong Kong's plastic bag consumption.

Green groups say bags are no longer supplied free with purchases in places such as Taiwan, Shanghai and Ireland, dramatically cutting their use by consumers.

In Ireland, they say, bag use was reduced by 90 per cent after a levy of about HK$1.40 per bag was introduced.

In Taiwan, plastic bag use fell by 80 per cent after a levy of 30 HK cents was introduced in 2002.

Plastic bag use is a growing concern because, according to the Council of Sustainable Development, Hong Kong's existing landfills will be full in 11 years.

But the supermarkets said on Friday they have no intention of amending their current system of a 10 HK cents cash rebate for every plastic bag not used, claiming they are being unfairly targeted.

The Green Student Council said its members will stage a protest today and submit a 5,000 signature petition supporting the levy to supermarket supremos Li Ka-shing, whose Hutchinson Whampoa conglomerate controls ParknShop, and Ronald Floto of the Jardine Matheson-controlled Dairy Farm, which operates Wellcome.

They said they will also surround the supermarket companies' headquarters at Cheung Kong Centre, Central, and Taikoo Place with chains made from plastic bags.

The council wants an environmental fund set up should a green tax be imposed, so that income from the levy goes directly into environmental use instead of the government's treasury.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang proposed a green tax on plastic bags and tyres to legislators earlier this month.

"This is a very good time for us to rethink the bag levy issue," said Angus Ho of the Green Student Council. "The tax will take a long time to implement but we need to do something in the meantime."

A spokeswoman for Wellcome said the government has not contacted the chain to follow up the trial programme proposal since representatives from the government, green groups and supermarkets met in August.

She said that if a levy is introduced it should apply to all retailers and not just the two supermarket chains.

"We're willing to co-operate in environmental protection, but it's unfair to target us as all supermarkets together were responsible for only 8.6 per cent of the total plastic bags used in 2003," she said.

"About HK$600,000 has been spent on the cash rebate system each year since the company introduced it in 1997, and 33 million bags have been saved in that time."

But Ho said the 8.6 per cent figure was misleading and that the supermarkets remain the largest users of plastic bags and bear responsibility under the polluter-pays principle.

Wellcome and ParknShop together operate about 500 stores in Hong Kong.

A ParknShop spokeswoman said the 10 HK cents rebate is already well above both the net and landfill costs of each bag, which is about five cents.

In rejecting the 50-cent levy, the chain said it will have a "negative business impact" on its operations.

ParknShop has "already made progress" in reducing bag use, with 2.2 million bags saved from January to July this year, according to the spokeswoman.

But Ho estimates that fewer than 40 bags are saved from each ParknShop and Wellcome branch each day.

A recent Green Student Council survey revealed that one-third of the 10 million bags given out by supermarkets each day are unnecessary.

Real cost of air pollution far greater
Sylvia Hui, Hong Kong Standard
2 December 2004

Air pollution-related illnesses cause HK$1.7 billion economic losses a year to Hong Kong, according to Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao, but environmentalists said that figure is too conservative.

Quoting a study commissioned by the Environmental Protection Department and carried out by the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University in 2002, Liao said on Wednesday economic losses from respiratory and cardiovascular diseases attributed to air pollution were HK$1.7 billion a year.

This included consultation and hospital fees as well as lost productivity, she said in reply to a question by lawmaker James Tien in the Legislative Council.

The real cost is far greater, environmentalists say, and Liao admitted it is impossible to collect statistical data or confirm economic losses due to investors and others being turned off by the air pollution problem.

Clear the Air vice-chairman Annelise Connell said there are also costs related to tourists who decide not to visit hazy Hong Kong or advise their friends not to, and people leaving because of the bad air, although there are no related studies on these costs.

"How do you put a cost on the people Hong Kong loses? Many people leave here because they consider the air has put their health at risk," she said.

The general Air Pollution Index was 60 on Wednesday, soaring to 100 in Mong Kok.

Thursday December 2, 9:30 PM
Southern Chinese province must curb car use to reduce pollution in Hong Kong, environmental chief says

(AP) Authorities must control the growing number of cars in China's southern province of Guangdong to reduce air pollution in neighboring Hong Kong, the territory's environmental secretary said Thursday.

About 80 percent of the air pollution in Hong Kong, which is often obscured by smog, is believed to blow in from mainland China.

Hong Kong, with a population of 6.8 million, has half a million cars, while Guangdong's capital of Guangzhou, with a population 7.3 million, already has 1.7 million _ triple the number five years ago, Hong Kong's Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao said.

"That growth is astounding, and if that growth continues, it will be very very difficult to hope, to even hope that air pollution will come down," Liao said in a speech.

She urged Guangdong authorities to develop the province's public transportation system. Liao noted some progress has been made, with the central Chinese government clearing the province to start planning an intercity light rail system.

"So we hope in the future that people across the border would be persuaded to use public transport and not to aspire to the ownership of a car," she said.

Liao said officials from Hong Kong and Guangdong have agreed to cut down on harmful emissions, and 16 monitoring stations have been set up in Guangdong to keep track of progress.

Calls to the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau seeking comment went unanswered.

Separately, Hong Kong's largest polluter, power company CLP Holdings Ltd., announced Wednesday it will reduce emissions by generating more power with liquefied natural gas and shifting away from coal.

CLP Holdings will also install sulfur-removing facilities at its power generators.

HK's CLP to boost its generation of green energy

HONG KONG, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Hong Kong electric utility CLP Holdings Ltd. said on Friday it plans to develop more environment-friendly power projects in coming years, even though they generate lower returns.

CLP, which unveiled its new environmental strategies, aims to boost renewable energy sources -- including hydro and wind energy -- to account for about 5 percent of its existing total generating capacity of 13,000 megawatts by 2010.

Renewable energy projects tend to produce lower returns due to their higher capital costs, compared with fossil fuel projects such as coal-fired power plants.

"We are prepared to see a lower return on renewable projects," Managing Director Andrew Brandler told reporters.

Hong Kong utilities are under increasing pressure to power the economy with environmentally friendly fuel as deteriorating air quality threatens to tarnish the city's image.

The firm is expected to add at least 600 MW of generation capacity in renewable energy to meet its 5 percent target. Its total investment amount was not disclosed.

To kick-start its new commitment, CLP plans to invest 247 million yuan (US$ 29.8 million) to develop a greenfield wind project in the northeastern province of Shandong.

CLP, which has a 45 percent stake in the project, has teamed up with a unit of China's Huaneng Group, one of the largest independent power producer in China, to develop a 27 MW wind farm.

CLP, which serves more than 2.1 million customers in Hong Kong, also plans to install desulphurisation facilities in a power station in the city, to reduce the emission of sulphur dioxide and particulates.

The firm also is considering building Hong Kong's first liquefied natural gas receiving and storage terminal.

(US$=8.28 yuan)

Smog enveloped Hong Kong for a fifth of 2004
Thu Jan 6,12:10 PM ET

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20050106/capt.sge.uht88.060105170731.photo00.photo.default-384x265.jpg

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong's pollution problem worsened markedly in 2004 with the city cloaked in choking smog for 65 days throughout the year, a senior government meteorologist said, citing latest figures.

Industrial waste gases, smoke and vehicle fumes reduced visibility to record lows in the southern Chinese enclave.

"In 2004, low visibility occurred some 18 percent of the time, the highest on record," Assistant Director of the Hong Kong Observatory Yeung Kai-hing said in a statement.

Hong Kong is inundated by smog from southern China's heavily industrialized Pearl River Delta. Some 80 percent of its pollution originates from the delta region.

Green groups say the problem was worsened last year by a power shortage on the mainland, which forced the reopening of old generating plants mothballed because of poor emissions standards.

The filthiest day of the year fell on September 14 when the air pollution index nudged for the first time above the critical 200 level: a reading of more than 100 is classified as "very high" and triggers an automatic health warning.

The pollution issue is a politically sensitive one that gets little governmental attention in Hong Kong, where Beijing-appointed leaders are reluctant to be seen as demanding costly emission cuts on the mainland.

Smog levels are usually worst in spring and winter, when the still weather keeps pollution trapped within the former British colony's urban canyons and rural valleys.

However, a government statement accompanying the latest pollution figures said the problem had worsened in each season.

"Before the mid-1980s, reduced visibility seldom occurred in (autumn). After the mid-1980s, reduced visibility became increasingly frequent in autumn, reaching 10 percent of the time in the last few years."

^ they've really need to cut back on the number of buses roaming the streets. Sometimes Nathan Rd. just looks like a big confusing jam. Also, Shenzhen & Pearl River area really need to slap some environmental regulations on its factories, for they're really ruining the air of the whole area.

Nathan Road and King's Road on Hong Kong Island underwent a major stop reorganization plan a while back. Many routes had to cut a few stops each to ease congestion. However, given the lack of other roads available and the sheer volume of passengers, there will still be traffic jams ... of buses, which is quite unique. In North America, it's very rare to see buses outnumber cars and taxis by such a wide margin.

^ Would an expansion of the MTR be feasible? I know the airport line hasn't really helped relieve any of the congestion in most of Kowloon Peninsula be/c of its distance from it.

The Tung Chung line is relieving congestion on the Tsuen Wan sector as passengers can get to the Lai King interchange much quicker than through Tsim Sha Tsui. In fact, it only takes about 20 minutes to reach Tsing Yi, one station past Lai King, from Central.

The Tung Chung line is relieving congestion on the Tsuen Wan sector as passengers can get to the Lai King interchange much quicker than through Tsim Sha Tsui. In fact, it only takes about 20 minutes to reach Tsing Yi, one station past Lai King, from Central.

True, too bad that if you want to go from Olympic & Kowloon to Mong Kok, you would have to take a detour to Lai King & head east on Tusen Wan Line. 2 times longer than kMB. Given the expansion of population in the area lately, they'll need something there. There needs to be a East-West line in South Kowloon, even if it's short.

There is really not much HK can do, it is the Pearl River Delta that turned up all the pollution and HK just inevitably becomes the victim of its neighbor's industrial boom.

Here is a shocking article from cleantheair.org in HK.

http://www.cleartheair.org.hk/api.htm

Obviously the government is dressing up the Air Pollution Index so the real impact on HK people's health is grossly understated.

The Tung Chung line is relieving congestion on the Tsuen Wan sector as passengers can get to the Lai King interchange much quicker than through Tsim Sha Tsui. In fact, it only takes about 20 minutes to reach Tsing Yi, one station past Lai King, from Central.

No ah. It only takes 13 mins.

Air quality decline looks likely to continue
Expert is worried about record levels of particulates found in some HK areas
Cheung Chi-fai
17 January 2005
South China Morning Post

The deterioration of air quality is not likely to level off soon, after the highest level of particulates was recorded in some districts last year, according to a leading scientist on air pollution.

Data obtained from the Environmental Protection Department shows the annual average level of respirable suspended particulates (RSP) in Central and Western, Tung Chung and Yuen Long last year were the highest since 1996.

These stations are on the western side of the city, which experts say is more prone to the impact of pollution from the mainland.

The disclosure came after the Hong Kong Observatory reported the worst visibility on record in 2004, after an increase in suspended particulates in the air.

In Yuen Long, the average RSP level hit 71 micrograms per cubic metre of air, up 16 per cent from the previous year.

Tung Chung also recorded a 14 per cent increase to 62 micrograms, the worst since monitoring started in 1999. Central and Western also saw the level hitting 59 micrograms.

RSPs, or pollutants with a size smaller than 10 microns, are health hazards, potentially leading to respiratory or lung diseases.

Most of these particulates are generated from the combustion processes of power plants, vehicles, factories, and open burning in the region. Apart from the annual performance, the monthly average data also revealed a disturbing trend of air quality deterioration during the months from June to October, when sea breezes should have brought in fresh air.

For instance, the Tung Chung reading jumped from 17 micrograms in June 2002 to 35 in 2003, and 45 micrograms in 2004.

The last two months, however, showed some relief with the average monthly figures generally lower than in 2003, though they were still significantly higher than 2002.

Alexis Lau Kai-hon, acting director of the Centre for Coastal and Atmospheric Research, said: "There is no evidence to suggest the deterioration has levelled off. Instead, we have seen continuing bad air quality in early January."

EPD data showed that RSP readings in Tung Chung and Yuen Long hit a very high level of over 260 micrograms for some hours between January 3 and 5.

Professor Lau believes the deterioration was caused by increasing emissions in the region while rapid urbanisation in the delta region helped trap the pollutants, preventing dispersion.

Raymond Leung Pak-ming, EPD principal environmental protection officer, said that it was still too early to predict the air quality, as the data could vary from year to year.

Most cite the smog as a reason to leave
Parents worry about health risk to their children
Cheung Chi-fai
17 January 2005
South China Morning Post

Air pollution in Hong Kong is so bad that more than half the residents in a survey want to move to a cleaner place out of concern for their health.

Many people avoid going outdoors and would be willing to pay more in bills or taxes for cleaner air, the survey found.

Market research firm Synovate interviewed 4,885 people last month in eight Asian cities, including Hong Kong, for their views on air pollution. The other cities were Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Manila.

Almost all 987 Hong Kong respondents said air pollution affected them. Up to 53 per cent said they wanted to move and most of them were worried about the living environment for their children.

Over 66 per cent said they suffered from eye irritation at times of high pollution; 37 per cent experienced breathing problems; and 30 per cent had skin problems.

In some cases, 21 per cent felt emotionally disturbed.

About one-third blamed cross-border emissions for most of the pollution. However, the most-cited source was motor vehicles.

About 70 per cent felt the air quality last year was a little worse or about the same as in 2003.

As a result of these complaints, some have changed their lifestyles to cope with the bad air quality. About 40 per cent tried to avoid too much outdoor activity, while 62 per cent worked hard at staying healthy.

Fifty-eight per cent said they were willing to pay slightly higher bills if power plants and factories could switch to cleaner processes.

Some 68 per cent said they would pay more taxes if the government could do more to clean up the environment.

A similar proportion also supported harsher punishment for companies that pollute the air.

oh yes pollution affect me too >.< it causes me to cough a lot. also pollution is very bad. like in new towns liek tuen mun and shatin where traffic is not very dense and smog/haze is in teh sky 24/7.

i didnt realize that the pollution in HK is that bad.. i thought it was just here in the philippines.. i guess all countries are facing this problem nowadays huh?

hopefully alot of things would change soon..

nah, it's just hong kong having the highest amount of traffic per km of road it has in teh world. also it is very crowded, if hong kong lived an american lifestyle of driving a car. the pollution will be at least 5 times worse and traffic will be everywhere. also there are jsut too many taxis.

Cleaner power will mean bigger bills - Stephen Ip concedes measures to cut pollution will force consumers to pay more
Denise Tsang
1 February 2005
South China Morning Post

Anti-pollution measures would mean customers would have to pay bigger power bills, the government warned yesterday.

Launching the first stage of consultations on changing regulation of the city's two electricity providers, a minister also highlighted the risks, and cast doubts on the benefits, of linking their grids.

Economic Development and Labour Bureau chief Stephen Ip Shu-kwan conceded that pollution reduction measures, such as installing sulfur scrubbers at power plants and using cleaner fuel, would bring bigger electricity bills.

His comments came as the bureau proposed options in the first of a two-stage consultation on the sector's future regulatory road map. "The public will agree that keeping the environment clean is very important, and [will] find the costs worth paying," he said. "That's why we want to take this opportunity to discuss with the two power firms reducing tariffs."

A key option for lowering tariffs is deepening the interconnection between the power grids of CLP Power and Hongkong Electric, or between the power grids of Hong Kong and Guangdong.

However, the government said it was unable to quantify the economic benefits that would arise from the power firms' interconnection, while a cross-border link-up would not be feasible in 2008, when the present scheme of control ends.

"A key issue facing interconnection is the liability of parties in the case of blackouts. At this stage, we don't see a viable connection with China, but we haven't given up the option yet," Mr Ip said.

To regulate the financial returns of power firms, the government has proposed that profits could be determined by their asset base, equity base, cost of capital and comparisons with other utilities.

The government has not specified the rate of return it thinks appropriate. But it has pointed out that returns for regulated electricity utilities vary in the US between 6 per cent and 13 per cent; in Australia, between 6 and 7 per cent; and in Britain, from 6 to 9 per cent.

Deutsche Bank analyst David Clark expected few changes to the present regulations when the scheme of control expires.

"We believe the government and the utilities will settle on an asset-based regulatory framework but with lower asset-based returns tied to the [weighted average cost of capital] in Hong Kong and more incentives to operate efficiently."

Any rules replacing the existing scheme of control would have to maintain a reliable and environmentally friendly power supply at lower tariffs, the bureau said.

"Reliability of supply is the most important thing, which is followed by environmental protection initiatives and lower tariffs," Mr Ip said of the bureau's policy objectives for the reform process.

Hong Kong has entered a crucial phase of the reform process, with the scheme of control, introduced in 1963, expiring in 2008. By linking power firms' profits to their spending on fixed-asset investments, the rules have allowed CLP Power and Hongkong Electric to earn a return of between 13.5 and 15 per cent on their average net fixed assets. Critics say this is unrealistic in a low-interest environment.

CLP Power called for a regulatory regime that would take into consideration the reliable supply of electricity, reasonable tariffs, environmentally friendly initiatives and a high level of customer service.

Hongkong Electric, which serves Hong Kong and Lamma islands, said it would submit views on the consultation paper to the government after a thorough study.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen work closely to improve regional air quality
Wednesday, February 2, 2005

Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (February 2) :

Question:

It has been reported that industrial pollution in Chiwan of Shekou, which is close to the New Territories, has been serious in recent years. Moreover, the dark smoke dust emitted from the power stations, refuse incineration plants and factories there may drift to the New Territories with the wind and affect the health of local residents. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether any air quality monitoring stations have been established in locations within Hong Kong which are close to Chiwan of Shekou; if so, of the recorded air pollution level; if not, how the authorities monitor the situation of the above pollution problem;

(b) of the months and areas of Hong Kong which are most affected by the dark smoke dust, as projected from wind directions; and

(c) whether it has discussed with the Shenzhen Municipal Government the options for solving the above pollution problem; if it has, of the progress and results of discussion; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) In the local air quality monitoring network, the monitoring stations at Yuen Long and Tung Chung can monitor the impact on Hong Kong of air pollution in the Pearl River Delta (PRD), including Chiwan, Shekou. In 2004, the average air pollution indices (APIs) recorded by the Yuen Long and Tung Chung monitoring stations were 53 and 49 respectively, which were comparable with those recorded by other stations in the territory.

(b) As Hong Kong is to the southeast of the PRD, air pollutants originating from the PRD covering Shenzhen (including Shekou) are easily carried by a northerly or northwesterly wind to the territory. Larger particles of smog and dust usually settle near the source of pollution, while the smaller respirable suspended particulates may be carried by the wind for a long distance. When the atmosphere is stable and a weak northerly or northwesterly wind prevails in the PRD Region, pollutants tend to accumulate, thereby raising the overall pollution level in Hong Kong. As the northeastern part of Hong Kong, including Yuen Long and Tung Chung, is to the downwind side of PRD, it is more susceptible to the influence of regional air pollution than other areas.

(c) With the sustained rapid economic development in the whole PRD Region, including Shekou of Shenzhen, air pollution in the region has become more serious, resulting in a regional air pollution problem. To address this problem, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government and Guangdong Provincial Government reached a consensus in April 2002 on the reduction of regional emissions and drew up the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Management Plan in December 2003, under which the Guangdong Provincial Government will implement a package of enhanced air pollution control measures in the PRD Region, including Shekou of Shenzhen, with a view to meeting the emission reduction targets.

The Environmental Protection Department has all along been working closely with the Shenzhen authorities on the regional air pollution problem. To reduce air pollutant emissions in Nanshan, Shenzhen (where Shekou is located), the municipal government has started implementing the following emission reduction measures under the Management Plan:

(i) Expediting the construction of desulphurisation facilities for power plants:the flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) retrofitting works for three units in Mawan Power Plant have been completed, while those for the remaining three units will be completed in late 2006;

(ii) To enhance the monitoring of emissions from motor vehicles, the environmental protection and traffic police authorities of Shenzhen have stepped up annual inspections and road checks on emissions from all types of motor vehicles. Owners of vehicles failing to meet the emission standards are penalised and required to carry out repairs until the standards are met. Additional police officers are also deployed to improve traffic flow so as to minimise emissions from slow-moving motor vehicles;

(iii) Upon the commissioning of the liquefied natural gas facilities in Guangdong in 2006, enterprises using fuel oils will modify their facilities progressively so as to switch to natural gas;

(iv) The 15 printing and dyeing factories in Nanyou have all switched to gas-fired energy provided by the Nanshan Power Station Company and the oil-fired boilers in individual plants have been replaced;

(v) The refuse incineration plant in Nanshan was retrofitted with emission reduction facilities in 2004, using FGD and dust removal technologies.

oh yes pollution affect me too >.< it causes me to cough a lot. also pollution is very bad. like in new towns liek tuen mun and shatin where traffic is not very dense and smog/haze is in teh sky 24/7.

Definitely. Shatin's air is horrible, & its all trapped in by the mountains around it. eeewww... Nevermind Tuen Mun, Tung Chung's air is worst.

at least ma on shan rail has taken some buses off the road and making people use east rial more , then change to mtr + tst east ext will help nathon road a little. but traffic is horrible , even with 2 lines serving under the road in certain sections.

The deadly air of Hong Kong
Smog from China kills 15,000 a year
One country, one foul environment
Martin Regg Cohn
Toronto Star
26 February 2005

HONG KONG -- It is a view to die for.

But the awe-inspiring vistas from Victoria Peak, overlooking Hong Kong's Fragrant Harbour, are shrouded in smog most days. And people are dying as a result.

On a few clear days, the mountains of mainland China still beckon from across the harbour. But, on a record 65 days last year, the view was completely blocked by thick air pollution, yellowish and acrid, wafting across the border into this former British colony.

Nearly eight years after being handed back to Chinese sovereignty under the rubric of "One country, two systems," Hong Kong is in the smothering embrace of the motherland's industrial emissions. Now, it's "One country, one environment" - and not a healthy one.

And it's destined to deteriorate.

"Things are going to get worse before they get better," says Sarah Liao, Hong Kong's environment secretary. "If you want a quick fix, I say, 'I'm sorry.'"

Medical researchers announced last week that pollution is a factor in up to 15,000 premature deaths annually in this port city of 7 million people. Their conclusions come on top of growing evidence that Hong Kong is paying a high price for neglecting the environment.

"I firmly believe it's a major cause of premature deaths in Hong Kong," said Anthony Hedley, head of community medicine at Hong Kong University.

"We need radical interventions," says Hedley, who co-authored a previous study showing that 17,000 people are hospitalized every year because of air pollution-related ailments. "I see this as an oil tanker at full steam that will take a long time to turn around."

It would take Hong Kong another 20 years to achieve Canadian air quality standards, which are about twice as stringent. Government statistics show current pollution levels here are more than double the average for Toronto.

Hong Kong's glittering highrise towers act like concrete canyons that trap toxins in the air when low winds cannot disperse them, compounding the perils of imported pollution. On one such day last September, the air pollution index exceeded the critical 200 level, double the "very high" benchmark of 100 that was recorded more than 80 times last year.

The fallout is being felt in some of those same office towers, where multinational companies are crying foul because of the difficulty in recruiting expatriate managers and other white-collar professionals to a pollution-plagued city. A recent survey by the Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce found that four out of five members were unhappy with the environment.

"Some people say they don't want to come here because of their kids - asthma and all that," says Bernard Pouliot, head of the Canadian Chamber of Commerce here.

A survey by the Canadian Chamber last year found that environmental concerns had overtaken the economy in Hong Kong. Indeed, Pouliot's organization has joined forces with other foreign business groups "to pressure the government into realizing that this is a problem for business."

Heeding the business lobby, Hong Kong's local government belatedly took steps such as converting taxi fleets from diesel to cleaner-burning liquefied petroleum gas. But there's a limit to what it can do.

More than 80 per cent of the pollution - sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and harmful ozone - emanates from mainland sources beyond its control.

"I think they're extremely concerned about it, but they feel impotent about it," Pouliot says. "We need giant fans to blow the air back to China."

In fact, the pollution problem is China's version of blowback: Hong Kong relocated many of its high-polluting industries into low-wage factories across the border over the last two decades, but the prevailing winds are sending them back across the Pearl River Delta.

Dubbed the world's factory, southern China's breakneck economic growth of about 15 per cent a year has put unbearable strains on the local environment: The region belches 700,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide annually.

With more than 2.5 million cars on the roads, vehicle ownership is growing at an unprecedented pace among newly prosperous Chinese workers, spewing carbon monoxide into the atmosphere. Electricity shortages have prompted big utilities to restart primitive coal-fired power plants once mothballed.

Factories at full tilt are switching on their standby generators to meet rising electricity needs, relying on low-grade "Bunker C" fuel oil that spews pollutants into the air. The use of dirty or "sour" fuels is blamed for much of the recent surge in pollution.

Now, environmental activists are looking for a shortcut: if they can somehow persuade the factory owners to clean up their act at source, they might avoid the delays from government bureaucracies on both sides.

"The number of visibility days is approaching zero in winter," warns William Barron, head of urban planning and environmental management at the University of Hong Kong. "Talking to the business community, we basically don't think the Hong Kong government is in a position to do anything."

Barron says more than two-thirds of Guangdong factories are owned by Hong Kong interests who might be open to persuasion.

"Why don't we appeal directly to these guys?" he asks. "They live here, too, and so do their families."

Directly across the border, the Special Economic Zone of Shenzhen has sprung up from out of nowhere over the last 15 years into a teeming city with more than 800,000 vehicles. It recorded an unprecedented 130 bad-air days last year.

Hong Kong officials have taken a more gradualist approach, setting up consultative committees with their Chinese counterparts and calling for more research from new pollution monitoring stations across the Pearl River Delta. Governments on both sides of the border have formally committed to cut emissions in this decade, but only on a "best endeavour" basis lacking any enforcement mechanisms or penalties.

Environmentalists complain that Hong Kong is reluctant to put its big brothers across the border on the spot, losing time for fear that Chinese officials might lose face.

"The Hong Kong government is very good at doing studies," complains Edwin Lau, assistant director of the environmental group Friends of the Earth.

"We're always asking the government to move faster and act bolder - not wag their finger or slap them down; we understand that. But they're being too cautious."

For its part, Hong Kong says its hands are tied. Liao, the cabinet-rank environment secretary, said in an interview that her government has targeted most local sources of pollution but cannot order mainland China's economic engine to ease up.

"What we could do locally we have already done," she said.

Keith Kwok, the top official in Liao's department, says: "It's disappointing, as a Hong Konger living here, to see air quality visibly deteriorate over the last few years... You can smell it in the air."

Cosmetics sector puts Tung to test in anti-pollution push
Colum Murphy, Hong Kong Standard
February 28, 2005

The cosmetics industry has called on Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa to intervene in its spat with government officials over proposed regulations concerning air pollution-causing volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

"The government has closed its ears to industry concerns," Paul Leung of the Cosmetic and Perfumery Association of Hong Kong said.

VOCs are found in many paints, inks and cosmetics. Under new rules, failure to list and label levels of VOCs in the products could result in a HK$100,000 fine and up to six months in prison.

Leung said the industry is being victimized by the government's plan.

In its letter to Tung, submitted last week, the association pointed out that cosmetics was only responsible for producing 1 per cent of total VOCs released in Hong Kong.

The letter also pointed out that the government is ignoring concerns voiced by two official bodies - the Economic and Employment Council, which advises the Financial Secretary, and the Legislative Council's commerce and industry panel - both of which, Leung said, have urged the government to gather more data in order to better assess the impact of regulation on industry before pressing ahead with legislation.

He said the association is mainly concerned about the impact of testing costs on the roughly 5,000 small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) engaged in the industry in the territory, which he defined as companies with annual turnover of HK$5 million or less.

The industry employs an estimated 100,000 people. Testing costs roughly HK$1,200 for a single ingredient, and a typical cosmetic product contains between 20 and 25 ingredients.

Leung reiterated claims made by his association late last year that the new regulations could result in half of the SMEs being forced to shut down.

Joseph Ho of Zenith Cosmetics, an agent importing cosmetics from Europe, Japan and South Korea with a staff of 20 and annual turnover of about HK$20 million, said he believes the impact of the regulation on the industry could even be greater.

He estimates 80 percent of industry players will have to alter the nature of their business or even close down.

Ho said he plans to sell off all his stock ahead of the new legislation, and will narrow the product range his company offers.

This will almost certainly mean he will have to lay off some of his 10 sales staff.

The government said it believes the proposed VOC regulation is necessary, and its consultation process fair.

In a statement released Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau said that, according to a joint study by the Hong Kong and Guangdong provincial governments, the smog problem over Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta can only be alleviated by significantly reducing emissions of four major air pollutants significantly, and VOCs are one of them.

The only government figures on VOC emissions date back to 1997, during which 53,719 tonnes was released into the air.

The two governments agreed in April 2002 to reduce emissions of VOCs by 55 percent by 2010, with 1997 as the base year.

The spokeswoman said that like Hong Kong, southern California once faced a serious smog problem, which was only significantly improved by reducing VOC emissions from various sources, including consumer products.

VOCs play a significant role in the formation of the poisonous gas ozone and respirable suspended particulates in the atmosphere.

Ozone can cause eye irritation and lower respiratory infections. It can also provoke asthma attacks.

The bureau also denied claims that the government is not paying enough attention to the concerns of industries affected by the new regulatory scheme.

Study on plastic bag levy nearly finished
Cheung Chi-fai
01 March 2005
South China Morning Post

The government will decide this year whether it will impose a levy on the use of plastic bags as part of its efforts to reduce solid waste.

A study that would consider the effectiveness, impact and enforcement issues of such a levy was nearing completion.

This was stated by Permanent Secretary for Environment Keith Kwok Ka-keung yesterday before Legco as he sought to reassure lawmakers that the government did not favour waste disposal over recycling.

Apart from plastic bags, officials said they were also looking at recycling polystyrene foam, rechargeable batteries and rubber tyres under product responsibility schemes.

The proposed schemes would require product users, retailers or wholesalers to be responsible for collecting used products for recycling.

Despite repeated assurances from officials on waste reduction and recycling, the lawmakers at yesterday's environmental affairs panel remained sceptical.

They even refrained from discussing further details of six recommendations for waste treatment such as incineration and composting and criticised officials for being vague in their priorities in dealing with waste and failing to set reduction targets.

"If you are selling incineration to us, I am worried that the efforts on pushing recycling will be wasted and the drive for that will be gone," said democrat lawmaker Cheung Man-kwong, who cited the poor recovery rate of waste polystyrene foam.

He said only 12 tonnes of foam was collected a year, compared with over 40,000 tonnes dumped in the landfills.

However, Mr Kwok denied that the government had been trying to sell the incineration idea to legislators.

He said reduction of waste and recycling were being given equal importance in drawing up the policy.

Mr Kwok said the city recycled about 40 per cent or 2.8 million tonnes of its municipal solid waste last year, outperforming some countries such as France, Switzerland and Denmark.

"We cannot also simply ignore the final treatment because [space for] land-filling is reaching a very critical stage."

He said the government would list the targets and detailed measures for handling waste in a white paper to be published in the second quarter of this year.

No hiding place from pollution
Zhu Sun, Hong Kong Standard
March 7, 2005

Much has been said about Hong Kong's worsening air pollution. But is it safe to take cover indoors when pollution levels soar?

No, says a Hong Kong University professor who believes the city's high levels of indoor air pollution and second-hand smoke put office workers and families at risk from lung damage, heart problems and death.

Many of the poor ventilation systems that take in outdoor air to cool office buildings do not eliminate the harmful dioxins and chemical compounds released from cars and trucks in Hong Kong and "Bunker 3" fuel, an industrial fuel with high levels of sulfur, which can pollute the air and cause extreme irritation to lungs and throats. Bunker fuel is banned in Hong Kong but used regularly in machinery and manufacturing in the mainland.

Professor Anthony Hedley, a chair professor at Hong Kong University's community medicine program, has raised concerns about the quality of air workers breathe while working in offices or relaxing at home, bars and restaurants.

He said two decades of solid medical research has shown that exposure to indoor air pollution, including the sulfur dioxide created by the combustion of high-sulfur fuels for cars and the chemicals found in cigarette smoke and cooking fuels pose a "very high and unacceptable risk" for workers.

It will have dire consequences for the city's productivity levels and health-care systems, he warned.

"The evidence is overwhelming. There are no circumstances whatsoever where I would spend 10 minutes in a place with smoke," he said.

Hedley believes it is necessary to raise alarms for workers in Hong Kong to be better treated when it comes to the air they breathe. He is concerned that businesses and landlords have not taken the appropriate steps to safeguard their buildings from the effects of pollution.

The gas cookers found in many flats and restaurants, for example, produce nitrogen dioxide. In high levels or over time, this gas can produce respiratory problems such as asthma in the young and infirm.

Ilse Strafe is managing director of OxyVital, an international company that provides air purification systems to offices in the city.

One of those office buildings is Hong Kong Land's Alexandra House, according to a spokesperson at Hong Kong Land. The company is in the process of installing the system.

Strafe said people in the city cannot escape the dangerous levels of air pollution that have plagued Hong Kong's streets for the past several years.

The problem, she said, lies in the centralized air-conditioning systems in many buildings. People assume that they can retire indoors to escape the smog, soot, fumes and grime, but while they work out to improve their health, they will not be protected by their exercise or air-conditioning.

Even indoors, several chemicals such as nitrogen dioxide, formaldehyde, which comes from sealants used on furniture and floors, and also bacteria and viruses seep in through the filters that many buildings use in their central air-conditioning systems.

Formaldehyde has been shown to be a factor in cancer rates in adults.

"It cannot be that our life is being run by the best bicycle, or the best yoga mat and then we ignore the most essential ingredient, our air," Strafe said.

But even with outdoor pollution seeping into our homes and offices, the biggest concern for medical professionals like Hedley is tobacco smoke.

After spending an hour in a smoking environment, he says, non-smokers experience the same degenerative effects experienced by regular smokers, but on a worse level. Research on rats demonstrated that those exposed to smoke rising from the lit tip of a cigarette suffered far more damage to their lungs and body tissues than rats exposed to "mainstream" smoke, the smoke that smokers inhale through the cigarette.

Second-hand smokers experience "chronic inflammatory changes [that] damage the cells that facilitate blood cells," Hedley said. That leads to the high potential for heart attacks and strokes even in people who are healthy and fit.

In a report published by the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2001, researchers said second-hand smoke leads to the breakdown of the cells lining the artery walls, and also causes blood platelets to clot too effectively in non-smokers at "a saturated level," prompting increased risk for heart attacks and strokes.

Strafe once confronted the admin-istration of a local school with independent research that showed high levels of radon in the building.

She was told they were not interested in her products, even though figures showed that the radon, a deadly gaseous byproduct of uranium decay, disappeared when students sat for their classes. The gas reappeared after the students left the class. Strafe said this showed the children were absorbing the pollution.

"If you are in a polluted city," Hedley said, "then the indoor levels will reflect the outdoor levels.

"The evidence of harm done to all body tissues is overwhelming in Hong Kong."

The articles about air pollution level is true? I have mild asthma. How bad would it be walking outdoors during the day?

Plastic bag tax 'hard to implement'
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
April 12, 2005

As Hong Kong slowly sinks under a mountain of plastic bags, the big supermarket chains are planning to offer promotions for customers to use reusable bags in three months.

However, the government is reluctant to introduce a green tax such as charging customers for plastic bags as it is "very difficult to implement" - despite the clear success of such programs in other countries.

Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao reiterated Monday that charging people HK$1 for each plastic bag is very complex and alternative proposals should be considered.

Last month Liao said if a plastic bag tax was implemented it would have to be HK$1 a bag.

"Apart from educating the public not to use excessive numbers of plastic bags, we also want to offer them some economic benefits," she said.

Liao added that the government and supermarkets are working together on ways to provide more incentives to customers to reduce their plastic bag use.

The reusable bag promotion will be launched in early June.

Supermarket chains Wellcome and ParknShop in 1996 introduced an incentive scheme that deducts 10 cents from the bill for every plastic bag customers do not use, but Liao said the measure is not effective.

"To change people's mindset is the key to reduce the use of plastic bags," Liao said in an radio program.

The Friends of the Earth environmental affairs manager Chu Hon-keung said the overuse of plastic bags is very serious and described the new measure as "a good start."

Chu said the average Hong Kong resident uses 1,800 plastic bags a year, compared with 300 in Ireland and Australia, and 900 in Taiwan.

Reducing plastic bags consumption is a "burning issue," according to Chu, as the government said more than 33 million bags, or 1,064 tonnes of plastic waste, is dumped into landfills every day.

Liao said the government can learn from Taiwan's "very effective" example in minimizing the use of plastic bags.

Vendors in Taipei can no longer offer free plastic bags to customers, who must request them and pay for each one.

The government had considered introducing a plastic bag tax as an attempt to minimize waste, but Liao said it was a complex issue which had to be examined carefully.

A government recycling measure has shown some progress and cut plastic bag use by 5 percent, Liao said.

On average, 200,000 bags were collected from 24 supermarkets and 36 housing estates per month for recycling.

Meanwhile, Liao stressed there was a need to introduce product responsibility promotions to lower environmental risks.

A battery recycling program launched last week has shown that manufacturers, importers, retailers and consumers are willing to share the responsibility, she said.

Liao said product responsibility schemes for tires and rechargeable batteries are being explored, while studies on drink containers and electrical appliances will be carried out this year.

Greenpeace campaign manager Tam Man-kei said the product responsibility program is a global trend widely adopted by many advanced countries.

Hong Kong government is apparently lagging behind, Tam said.

April 11, 2005
Government Press Release
Mindset change key to cutting plastic bag use

http://news.gov.hk/tc/category/environment/050411/html/050411p003jpg.jpg
Sarah's bag: Secretary for Environment, Transport & Works Sarah Liao shows programme hosts her "green" bag for documents.

Changing people's mindset is the key to reducing the use of plastic bags, Secretary for Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao says, adding supermarkets will offer more incentives to urge customers use fewer plastic bags.

Speaking on RTHK talkshow "Dialogue with Secretaries" today, Dr Liao said the proposed plastic bag tax was a complex issue which had to be examined carefully.

As required by law, shops in Taipei no longer offer free plastic bags, and customers have to request and pay for these bags. Dr Liao said the move might help reduce plastic bag use, but its feasibility had to be explored in detail.

On the plastic bags recovery trial, Dr Liao noted dozens of housing estates and supermarkets had joined the scheme, which has cut plastic bag use by 5%. The Government is liaising with supermarkets on providing more incentives to customers to reduce plastic bag use, and a new promotion will be launched soon, she added.

Dr Liao stressed there was a need to introduce product responsibility schemes to lower the environmental risks, and the battery recycling scheme launched last week has shown manufacturers, importers, retailers and consumers are willing to share the responsibility.

She said product responsibility schemes on tyres and rechargeable batteries are being explored, while studies on drink containers and electrical appliances will be carried out this year.

Turning to the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge, Dr Liao anticipated works would start by the end of this year, and relevant transport infrastructure within Hong Kong has been planned. The bridge will be financed by the private sector, while connecting transport networks will be built by Hong Kong, Zhuhai and Macau Governments.

Dr Liao said the Advisory Council on the Environment had been asked to partake in the project's environmental impact assessment to ensure a high degree of transparency during the process.

She said the bridge would be a key connection between the three cities, bringing Hong Kong substantial economic benefits.

March 29, 2005
Government Press Release
Waste-management re-think urged

Waste worries: Director of Environmental Protection Robert Law says the Government will press ahead with the polluter-pays principle as the economy recovers.

Hong Kong people will have some tough decisions to make in future as landfills are getting full and replacements are needed to tackle waste problems.

Reviewing his 24 years of service before his retirement on April 1, Director of Environmental Protection Robert Law said today that Hong Kong people's mindset has hindered the implementation of the polluter-pays principle seeing more waste heading to landfills.

"In Hong Kong very few people have to pay tax. When we talk about extra charges, people will get upset. People also think that the Government has to pay for everything. But the Government just cannot keep printing money," he said.

Mr Law said one of his regrets is not being able to spread the polluter-pays principle to more areas. However, he added the Government will press ahead with the principle as the economy recovers.

Huge improvements

Mr Law said Hong Kong's environment is not bad considering its dense population and high economic activity, and environmental awareness has improved a lot since he joined the Government in 1981.

People becoming more environmentally conscious, the implementation of the environmental impact assessment law in 1998, and the ban on the use of high sulphur dioxide fuels in 1990 are seen by Mr Law as some of his major achievements during his tenure.

Hong Kong's environmental impact assessment law is regarded as one of the best in the world, and the ban in 1990, which has the greatest impact on health, has lowered the amount of sulphur dioxide in industrial areas by 80%.

The day Mr Law retires the department will merge with the Environment, Transport & Works Bureau.

Greens blast CLP as 'climate criminal'
Chester Yung and agencies
Hong Kong Standard
April 29, 2005

Greenpeace activists attending CLP Holdings' annual general meeting Thursday accused the power company of being a "climate criminal" for contributing to global warming by relying on coal-fired plants across the region.

Nearly 30 well-dressed protestors from Hong Kong, the mainland, Thailand, the Philippines and India attended the meeting at the Peninsula Hotel as bonafide shareholders.

They called on the company to devote more resources to renewable energy and distributed "alternative" annual reports to shareholders that detailed CLP's use of coal. Other shareholders did not react to their motion, and the meeting proceeded normally.

Outside the hotel, the protestors unfurled a huge yellow banner with the words, "CLP Climate Criminal."

Greenpeace claims pollution generated from CLP's local coal plants in 2004 caused losses of HK$30 billion in medical bills, environmental cleanup and other expenses.

"Every HK$1 of profit made by CLP last year cost communities across the region nearly HK$4 in health and environmental impacts," Greenpeace climate campaigner Gloria Chang claimed. CLP spokeswoman Winifred Wong said the figure was a "debatable issue."

Chang argued that coal burning by CLP across Asia is "wrecking the climate, destroying the environment and poisoning people."

"Unless we act to stop climate change now, the consequences for humans and the environment will be devastating," she said.

CLP has interests in power plants and power companies in Hong Kong, China, India, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia. Its plants generated nearly 40 million tonnes of carbon dioxide last year, according to the company's 2004 social and environment report.

At a Greenpeace press conference following the AGM, the protestors swapped their business attire for black T-shirts with the slogan, "Stop Burning the Future."

BenCyrus Ellorin, of concern group Filipinos Against Coal, said construction of a CLP-funded coal-fired power plant in Mindanao in the southern Philippines had forced 2,000 households to relocate.

"They are only concerned about making money, but their money is destroying our life," he said, urging CLP to put a "human face" to the development.

His concerns were echoed by Charoen Dethkum, from Map Ta Phut, one of Thailand's biggest industrial ports where a CLP-funded coal plant is being built. "We are here to say `no' to CLP's dirty-coal business on behalf of many affected communities across the region."

CLP's Wong said climate change is a global issue for which "everyone should hold responsibility."

She said the company has reduced its reliance on coal and put in place emission-reduction plans for its plants.

"We only use coal for one-third of our fuel, and carbon-dioxide emissions have decreased by 5 percent since 1990," she said. CLP said in its 2004 report that it aims to use renewable energy for 5 percent of its generating capacity by 2010.

Toxic gases leak in test
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
May 2, 2005

Poisonous fumes escaped during pilot waste-incineration project: sources

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Front_Page/images/poll0502.jpg

The first test run of a pilot project to incinerate solid waste for reuse in cement manufacture resulted in the release of harmful gases into the atmosphere at the Green Island Cement (Holdings) plant in the Lung Kwu Tan area of Tuen Mun, according to sources at the site.

Green Island, a subsidiary of Cheung Kong Infrastructure, was given a license by the government to turn solid waste into cement through the pilot incineration plan, which is supposed to be an environmentally friendly alternative to landfills.

The incineration technology was developed by University of Science and Technology at a cost of HK$9 million and funded by the government.

Earlier this year, the government announced plans to incinerate solid waste as Hong Kong's landfills will be full in about six to 10 years' time.

The new incinerator is capable of handling about 50 percent of Lung Kwu Tan's solid waste, or up to 48 tonnes a day.

According to government figures, Hong Kong disposed of 17,760 tonnes of solid waste a day in 2003.

But test result documents seen by The Standard show the four-day test incineration, which ended last Monday, failed to meet Environmental Protection Department standards set out under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

A source close to Green Island told The Standard that incomplete combustion of waste during the incineration process resulted in suffocating smoke being released.

"The smoke and odour was unbearable and some members of the staff felt they were being suffocated," said the source.

Noxious fumes also leaked outside the cement factory, which is a breach of the license's requirements.

Green Island's environmental project officer Vivian Kwok denied any license requirements had been breached during the test.

She said two air samples were collected to analyze dioxin and heavy metal levels in the area. The result is expected in two to three weeks.

The Standard sent an e-mail Friday to Green Island chief executive Lambert Leung, asking him to comment on the issue, but he did not reply.

Director of Environmental Protection Keith Kwok said the trial incineration was watched "closely."

He also denied that the incineration process failed to meet standards.

Under the license requirements, oxygen levels during incineration should be about 8 percent in the combustion chamber.

But data recorded during last Monday's test that were made available to The Standard shows that the oxygen level at 10.32am was 4.53 percent. At 11am, the oxygen percentage was 5.76.

According to the source, this suggests waste was not being burnt efficiently, leading to the release of harmful gases.

Test data also shows that the air flow at the emission point was 20,245 cubic meters per hour, while license conditions stipulate that the required level should not be greater than 15,200. The source said that if airflow is too high, waste is improperly incinerated, resulting in the release of harmful gases.

The claim was backed by Kevin May, acting campaign manager at environmental watchdog Greenpeace.

The EPD's senior environmental protection officer, compliance division, She Wai-hon, said the trial incineration was monitored "almost daily" and insisted no "major problems" were encountered.

He said the oxygen and airflow readings could be the result of "problems [associated with the] measurement equipment."

"We should not only look at the figure but the whole spectrum" he said, noting that he is still waiting for the commissioning report by Green Island.

EPD spokeswoman Natalia Leung downplayed the problem.

"The purpose of commissioning tests is to identify deficiencies, unstable operating conditions, if any, in the plant and to rectify them before the plant is made fully operational," she said.

Green Island's Kwok confirmed that all data relating to the test incineration has been sent to the EPD, but she said EPD staff did not detect anything unusual nor was there anything to suggest that Green Island had breached its license requirements.

Greenpeace accused the EPD of turning a blind eye to the problem and criticised the monitoring mechanism, saying it was not open to the public, which impinges on the credibility of the trial's final result.

Greenpeace also fears the government will sanction promotion of the controversial incineration technique as a long-term waste management strategy for Hong Kong.

Residents in the nearby village of Lung Kwu Tan fear the incincerator will release cancer-causing dioxin, said village head Lau Wai-ping.

The EPD said in 2003 that Green Island would set up an environmental monitoring committee comprising members nominated by the Tuen Mun District Council as well as academics from the university and Green Island staff.

"The monitoring committee will keep a close watch on the performance of the plant throughout the trial period" the EPD said in its 2003 press release.

But Green Island's Kwok said no committee had been set up.

Greenpeace campaigner Edward Chan said "there is no independent monitoring mechanism and the EPD refused to release the data," and added the public is not aware of the potential danger.

He called on the government to invite members of the community to monitor the incinerator when it becomes operational.

The report on the test incineration goes to the government in about a month and a second test incineration is planned before year's end.

Problems admitted at 'trash to ash' trial
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
May 4, 2005

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A new incineration plant designed to turn solid waste into ash for the manufacture of cement encountered technical problems during a trial run late last month, one of Hong Kong's biggest cement makers admitted Tuesday.

Green Island Cement was responding to Monday's report in The Standard which revealed that harmful gases were released after problems occurred during the incinerator's test run from April 21-25.

Green Island's general manager Choi Ka-keung admitted there were some problems during the test, saying the incinerator's system alarm went off on two occasions.

"The alarm [went off at] about 9.30am on April 25 when the water pump failed," he said.

The failure was the result of a motor burn-out, Choi said.

The water pump is used to push air into the combustion chamber of the incinerator. A source close to the plant in Tuen Mun told The Standard Sunday that harmful gases were released after low levels of oxygen were recorded in the combustion chamber, suggesting that waste material was not being burned efficiently.

For incineration to take place without causing significant air pollution, oxygen levels during the process should be 8 percent under a license requirement set by the Environment Protection Department's Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

However, during the April 25 tests, the oxygen level was 4.53 percent and 5.76 percent respectively.

Choi called the 8 percent figure a "guideline" and said the readings were not a serious problem. The incineration technology in use was developed by the University of Science and Technology with HK$9 million in government funds and a matching amount from Green Island. It is intended to help relieve the use of landfill from the disposal of municipal solid waste.

Choi said the water pump first failed April 24 and that the alarm also went off on that occasion, but it was not considered as serious as the April 25 incident. He said both incidents "were not important and very common."

A source close to Green Island told The Standard Sunday that incomplete combustion of waste during the incineration process resulted in suffocating smoke being released. "The smoke and odor was unbearable and some members of the staff felt they were being suffocated," said the source.

Between 60 to 70 staff, employed by Green Island, which is a subsidiary of Cheung Kong (Holdings), and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, are deployed for the pilot incineration project. Choi said he has not received reports so far to indicate that anyone suffered health problems during the tests.

"I have not had any reports from the workers [complaining about harmful gases being released]," Choi said. "We have a first aid room in the plant to treat anyone [in case of an accident]."

The source also cited other problems associated with equipment at the incineration plant. "There were gas leaks from the cooling unit because of design faults with the incineration plant," said the source.

"Technically the design of the incineration plant is sound, but there were faults during its operation."

The problems, according to the source, could be the result of a substandard manufacturing process. "The equipment for the plant was made in the mainland and this may be the reason for the problems," said the source.

Choi confirmed that some vital components of the incineration plant were made in the mainland.

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology professor Gordon McKay, who is in charge of the incineration research project, said the main components were supplied by a mainland company called Chico China a construction firm.

Green Island Cement Holdings executive director Don Johnston told The Standard that although there were some problems it is "too early" to draw any conclusions.

However Choi said the gas collected for sampling might not be stable, because of problems with the water pump. The testing data also may not be reliable, he said.

Meanwhile, the source said there are leaks in the gas cooling equipment for the incinerator, claiming the material is imported from the mainland and the quality might not be up to standard. chester.yung@singtaonewscorp.com

LCQ6: Government adopts comprehensive and omni-directional strategy on pollution control technology
Wednesday, May 4, 2005
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Mrs Selina Chow and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (May 4) :

Question:

Concerning the introduction of new measures to reduce various pollutions, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether the government departments concerned study which of the new technologies developed overseas to tackle various pollutions, in particular air pollution and sewage, are suitable for introduction into Hong Kong; if so, of the new technologies these departments studied over the past three years, and those they plan to introduce in the next three years; and

(b) as the Scheme of Control Agreements signed between the authorities and the two power companies will expire in 2008, of the clauses the Administration intends to include in the new agreements with a view to reducing the emission of pollutants from power plants?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) and relevant departments always keep abreast of the latest development and application of pollution control technologies in Hong Kong and overseas. By introducing and revising pollution-related legislation, codes of practice and guidelines, the EPD promotes the application of mature pollution control technologies in specific projects, or requests relevant trades to comply with specified standards based on the new technologies. It should be pointed out that the Government's strategy on pollution control technology is comprehensive and omni-directional. Apart from research conducted by various governmental departments, we collaborated closely with tertiary institutions and made full use of existing resources and channels. For instance, the Environment and Conservation Fund established in 1994 aims to, as one of its prime objectives, sponsor local educational institutes to conduct research and technology projects related to environmental protection and nature conservation. The Fund recently sponsored researches on the reuse of plastic wastes, recycling of construction wastes, as well as uses of waste tyres. All in all, we adopt an open and pragmatic attitude towards all technologies conducive to the protection of environment and the prevention and reduction of pollutions, with key emphasis on their cost-effectiveness.

As far as air pollution is concerned, recent examples of pollution control technologies as investigated by the Government through different channels include the development of environmentally friendly motor vehicle technologies, cleaner motor vehicle fuels, vapour recovery systems at petrol filling stations, emission reduction techniques by power plants, emissions trading and satellite imaging for the monitoring of the air pollution conditions of the Pearl River Delta.

As far as sewage treatment is concerned, research and development include the state-of-the-art chemically enhanced primary treatment technology as employed in the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme (HATS) Stage I, pilot plant trials on compact sewage treatment technologies (including the advanced biological aerated filter technology recommended by the International Review Panel), and a pilot scheme for effluent reuse at the Ngong Ping Sewage Treatment Plant on Lantau Island upon its completion in end 2005. The bioremediation treatment of the sediment of Shing Mun River is another successful example.

In terms of renewable energy, studies as conducted by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) include those on photovoltaic system, on-site wind recording system and assessment on the environmental impacts of wind systems, etc. We also invite the two power companies to explore the construction of wind turbines for commercial application. To promote energy efficiency, the EMSD has approved buildings at various districts to use water-cooled air conditioning system, which is more effective than air-cooled system, and is also studying the feasibility of regional cooling system.

In the next few years, the EPD and relevant departments will continue to keep abreast of the latest advancements in air pollution control, sewage treatment and other technologies in the world that can help improve the environment, and consider the feasibility of their introduction into Hong Kong, including :

(i) The possibility of earlier implementation of Euro V specifications for motor vehicle fuel, and monitor the progress of the biodiesel study in Japan;

(ii) New exhaust emissions reduction devices, including continuously regenerating traps;

(iii) Development of vehicle emissions monitoring technologies, including remote sensors targeted at diesel vehicles;

(iv) To continue to urge the power companies to install more de-sulphurisation systems and low-NOx burners as appropriate to reduce sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides emissions;

(v) To study the membrane biological filter and reverse osmosis, and implement a demonstration scheme on reclaimed water uses in the North District; and

(vi) To study hybrid technology for sewage treatment and membrane biological reactor technology.

(b) To achieve the 2010 emission reduction targets agreed between the Hong Kong and Guangdong authorities, we will impose caps on the total emissions of the power companies, make it a policy to require the power companies to maximise the use of natural gas in power generation and develop renewable energy, in accordance with the objectives set out in the 2005 Policy Address. The Stage I public consultation on the future development of the post-2008 electricity market has just ended on April 30, 2005. The Economic Development and Labour Bureau will consider the views received, map out the framework for the development of the post-2008 electricity market, and consult the public again on the framework at Stage II of the consultation in the latter half of this year. The Government, in formulating the framework for development and the regulatory arrangements for the future electricity market, will consider, inter alia, how to reduce power generation emissions and develop renewable energy to achieve the objective of sustainable development.

Protests over plastic bag 'tsunami'
Cheung Chi-fai
06 May 2005
South China Morning Post

ParknShop came under fire yesterday for a poster depicting a tsunami of plastic bags as part of its deliberately shocking campaign to cut plastic bag use. The poster shows a wave of plastic bags sweeping the Earth, with South and Southeast Asia exposed.

Launching the campaign in its Tseung Kwan O store yesterday, the supermarket's managing director, Philippe Giard, said the image was intended to be striking enough to deliver the message of plastic bag pollution.

"The imagery we are using for this campaign - a giant wave in a sea of plastic - is deliberately strong and some might say shocking," he said.

But the design was criticised as being "inconsiderate" to the feelings of relatives of the 28 Hongkongers who died in the Boxing Day tsunami.

Hahn Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of Friends of the Earth, said the poster might be "strange and unpleasant", adding it would have been wiser for the supermarket to place Hong Kong under threat of the "tsunami".

Siu King-chung, who teaches art and design criticism at Polytechnic University's School of Design, warned that people might associate the material with the horror of the tsunami disaster.

"Some designers want to make provocative work so as to trigger public discussion, regardless of whether they are politically correct or not," he said.

But Mr Siu said the poster was more neutral and less specific than the controversial anti-smoking poster that depicts two burning cigarettes resembling New York's twin towers hit by terrorists. "After all, we should face these disasters, not avoid them," he said.

Teresa Pang Sau-kwan, public relations manager of the supermarket chain, defended the campaign, saying ParknShop had no intention of placing South Asia at the centre of a "tsunami of plastic bags".

But she admitted the strategy was to frighten people with a tide of bags that was like "a big wave hitting and flooding the Earth".

"We just want to send the message of the seriousness of the pollution of plastic bags and we adopted a rather non-mainstream way to present it. It might give people a shocking feeling," she said.

Three sisters aged from two to six were injured when glass from a broken door showered them while they were waiting for their mother at the main entrance of Kingswood Richly Plaza ParknShop in Tin Shui Wai at 1.30pm yesterday.

The girls were treated at Tuen Mun Hospital, police said.

Call for comprehensive waste recycling policy
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
May 9, 2005

A small market for recycled materials and ineffective waste collection combine to undermine the development of an environmentally friendly industry in the territory, green groups and businessmen say.

Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao once highlighted the huge potential of the recycling industry, saying "rubbish is in fact a very profitable business. The question is how to handle it."

Despite government support for the idea of recycling, it is "seriously lagging behind" on the operational side, Greenpower chief executive Man Chi-sum said.

According to government figures, more than HK$20 million has been spent on household recycling since 2000, but the domestic recycling rate remains around 15 percent of waste, compared with roughly 50 percent in Switzerland, Germany and Austria.

"The government has no comprehensive policy for recycling waste," Man said. Citing waste collection as an example, Man said the present mechanism is not effective because there are "many stops" during the collection process which pushes up transaction costs.

"The end product [of the waste] becomes very expensive as it is passed through many steps before recycling," he said.

Man urged the government to set up a central waste collection system to streamline the process.

Shirley Wong, vice chairman of Jet's Technic Limited, a leading manufacturer of recycled and recreational products in the SAR, said the company earned about HK$20 million last year from recycled products but the government should do more to ease transportation costs.

"The cost of transporting and collecting waste is huge and the individual manufacturer cannot afford it," Wong said.

In addition, more end uses need to be found for recycled material if the industry is to grow.

In the recycling industry, waste is not actually recycled until another use has been found for it, according to Wong.

"Therefore, it is important to find a way to use the recycled material," she said, noting that the market for recycled material in the territory is underdeveloped.

Her company was given a design award recently by the Architectural Services Department for its work at Mouseland Island playground in Tuen Mun, built out of 130 tons of plastic wastes and 50 tons of scrap tires.

Wong said the government's present policy to promote the recycling industry is mainly through facilitating and enabling the business environment. This is just not enough, she said.

Up to now, 29 sites with a total area of about 5.6 hectares have been leased exclusively to recyclers on short-term tenancies, a spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Department said. "More sites with longer tenure are being identified for recyclers and 20 hectares of land have been earmarked in Tuen Mun for the development of an EcoPark, which is expected to process 280,000 tons of waste a year, including paper, plastics, glass, tires and electronics, she said.

Man said EcoPark is a major start but the approach to the recycling industry must change to see the social benefits it provides. "The recycling industry should not be considered a general industry but part of the social services that benefit the general public," he said.

Stepping up fight for cleaner air
May 9, 2005
Hong Kong Standard

Converting all factories in the Pearl River Delta region to clean power may be a distant goal, but the SAR's Business Environment Council believes the aim can be achieved by gradually stepping up cross-border co-operation.

The 15-year-old council, which has seen a marked improvement in the balance between business and environmental interests in the territory, now wants the green business initiative to take root across the border.

Council chief executive Andrew Thomson said the SAR has enjoyed better environmental responsibility across business sectors, especially in building and construction. But regional air pollution must still be tackled.

"The big challenge now is to get the transformation across the border," Thomson said.

Starting this week, the council is hosting a series of environmental conferences on air pollution, waste management and urban regeneration. The first conference Thursday - "Power and Transport Infrastructure in the Pearl River Delta" - will explore the challenges in achieving cross-border emission control targets.

The Environmental Protection Department claims 80 per cent of the territory's air pollution comes from the mainland. "A large part of the problem is that mainland factories burn their their own fuel and generate their own electricity," Thomson said.

Incentives are necessary to convert small- and medium-sized manufacturers to green awareness and, in March, the council and Hong Kong Federation of Industries launched an award project, called "One factory-One year-One Environmental Project." The council aims to engage a few hundred factories and manufacturers in the first year, and more than 1,000 in five years.

"China is the world's manufacturer," Thompson said. "If Chinese factories supply to the big companies they will feel the supply chain pressure sooner or later. By joining our award program, they can show they are making tangible progress [in green initiatives] and are on the right track." It is not possible to monitor the progress of all the factories in the SAR and the mainland and transparency is a problem when the system is largely self-declaratory, Thompson said, adding recognition is a powerful incentive. "They're rewarded for doing the right thing," he said.

Energy provision in the territory, meanwhile, is wholly driven by the 15-year Scheme of Control, Thomson said. While green groups have attacked the SAR's two power companies for their dependence on coal-burning and the air pollutants this creates, Thomson said changes "can only come from the government.".

"Let's be realistic. The situation in Hong Kong is never going to be perfect," he said. "Businesses by nature must look after their shareholders."

Nonetheless, remarkable progress has been made in the territory. Thomson said the council's core concern group on green buildings and sustainable construction has been largely successful.

Pioneering the "building environmental assessment method," which assesses the sustainability of materials, energy design and the construction process of buildings in the territory, the council has assessed nearly 100 buildings since the project began three years ago.

"The construction industry used to be a mess. It was very polluting. Today, it is transformed," Thomson said, adding that a "knock-on effect" has clearly taken place with remarkable growth in the number of environmental consultants operating in the region, as well as environmentally aware architects, engineers and designers.

"There used to be a lot of fear and loathing for corporate environmental responsibility. But now we have a very engaged membership. We're not the lone voice anymore."

Encouraged by its members' enthusiasm, the council is branching out to harbor and reclamation concerns. Next month a Harbor Business Forum, with more than 100 interested organizations, will be launched, adding a business perspective to the handful of harbor concern groups in the territory. "There are so few business opportunities near the harbor," Thomson said.

Founded in 1989 by some of the SAR's biggest businesses, including HSBC, the Swire group, CLP Power and Jardine Pacific, the council now has more than 10,000 member companies.

Its quest to involve more businesses, especially small- to medium-sized companies, in better environmental management, continues. "We draw small and medium enterprises to green initiatives by offering training and mentoring programs," Thomson said. The programs include guide books and interpretative seminars on European Union environmental laws. And big companies are asked to mentor smaller firms.

LCQ7: Setting up of regional air quality monitoring network
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Dr Hon Kwok Ka-ki and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (May 11) :

Question:

One of the measures under the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Management Plan is to set up a regional air quality monitoring network, but details of the network have not been provided by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the specific locations of and site selection criteria (such as the altitude, nature of land use and environment of the site) for the 16 monitoring stations of the regional air quality monitoring network in the Pearl River Delta;

(b) whether it has drawn up any technical memorandum on the construction of the air quality monitoring stations; if so, whether the memorandum will be made public;

(c) of the timeframe for releasing details of the monitoring network concerned; and

(d) how the authorities will disseminate air quality information collected by the above monitoring network after it has been commissioned, and whether such information will include air pollution index and health tips?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network (the Monitoring Network) has been set up by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Provincial Government in accordance with the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Management Plan agreed in 2003. The Monitoring Network comprises 16 monitoring stations, 13 of which are modified from suitable existing stations to cater for the requirements of the Monitoring Network. These monitoring stations are located at Shenzhen, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Foshan, Shunde, Zhaoqing, Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Huizhou as well as Tap Mun, Tsuen Wan and Tung Chung of Hong Kong. The other three new monitoring stations are located on suitable sites at Conghua, Panyu and Huiyang. In drawing up the Monitoring Network, the environmental monitoring departments of both sides have mainly made reference to the recommendations of the Study on Air Quality in the Pearl River Delta Region jointly completed by the Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (HKEPD) and Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau in 2002, for selecting sites in the urban and rural areas of the Pearl River Delta that can best reflect the characteristics of regional air pollution. The Report of the Study on Air Quality in the Pearl River Delta Region is available at HKEPD's website;

(b) The environmental monitoring departments of the two sides have compiled a set of quality control and assurance manuals for the Monitoring Network with reference to international standards. The manuals contain technical and operational guidelines for setting up the monitoring stations. Subject to the examination and confirmation of experts from both sides, the manuals can be made available to the Legislative Council and the public in the latter half of the year for reference;

(c) The Monitoring Network is now on trial. It is estimated that in the latter half of the year, when the technical performance of the Monitoring Network meets the relevant requirements of the experts of both sides, more details can be made available to the public; and

(d) The Hong Kong-Guangdong Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection agreed at its meeting in December 2004 that monitoring results would be announced to the public as soon as possible according to the operating condition of the Monitoring Network. Both sides are now studying details such as the content, format and channels so that the agreed arrangement will be adopted for announcing the monitoring results.

Ambitious scheme for waste treatment plant
Cheung Chi-fai
14 May 2005
South China Morning Post

Environmental officials are considering building a centralised waste treatment plant that could process 7,200 tonnes of refuse a day.

An incinerator would deal with up to 5,700 tonnes and mechanical and biological systems would also be used.

In a paper submitted to the legislature yesterday, environment officials outlined eight possible technological options for waste treatment.

Officials favour an integrated approach that combines three treatment technologies they consider most suitable for the city.

The plant would occupy up to 35 hectares, a little smaller than the site of the planned West Kowloon cultural hub.

The location of the facility has not yet been decided and no cost estimate has been disclosed.

Under the plan, an anaerobic digestion system, in which bacteria disintegrate waste in an oxygen-free environment, could handle 500 tonnes of biodegradable material such as food. The system could also generate biogas for electricity.

A further 1,000 tonnes would be dealt with by mechanical and biological treatment. This system could also sort recyclable waste.

An estimated 5,700 tonnes of waste, unfit for the two previous systems, would be burnt in a conventional incinerator. Any unwanted residue or ash would then be buried in landfills.

The operating cost for all three systems is between $400 and $600 per tonne compared with $125 for landfill.

A government source said it would try to reduce and recycle as much waste as possible but there would always be material that would need treatment.

"Hong Kong is almost the only place among the advanced economies that does not have incinerators.

"I am not saying that this means we must follow suit, but Hong Kong is such a small place and we can't dump the waste in country parks or marine parks. We must find some way to reduce the volume disposed of at landfills," he said.

The government plans to increase the recycling rate from 40 to 50 per cent by 2014, with the remaining waste being processed by the integrated facility.

It wants to improve waste separation at sources such as factories and building sites.

It is also planning to build an "Eco Park" to encourage recycling and introduce producer-responsibility schemes. Officials are also considering domestic waste charges.

The government hopes the new integrated plant will be ready in 10 years because the landfills are expected to be full in six to 10 years.

Hahn Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of the Friends of the Earth, was disappointed by the proposal, saying not enough resources had been spent on increasing waste recovery.

"It is estimated that up to 88 per cent of the money spent by the government so far is to build and run the hardware of waste treatment facilities," he said.

He added that it was also risky for the government to plan a large incineration centre that would leave little room for advanced treatment facilities in the future.

Refuse blights Hong Kong waters
9 May 2005
South China Morning Post

The once heavily polluted waters surrounding Hong Kong have shown signs of improvement in recent years.

From stricter policing of water traffic to the construction of new and improved sewage treatment plants, there has been an effort by the public and private sectors to improve the situation.

But as anyone who has taken a weekend junk trip in any part of local waters knows, there is still a way to go.

Plastic bags, disposable cutlery, styrofoam, and all sorts of other debris abound, and despite the best efforts of government and volunteers, the refuse just keeps coming.

The Marine Department collected 13,937 tonnes of floating refuse from the coastal areas of Hong Kong during 2003, a rise of 17.4 per cent over the previous year.

And last year, volunteers combing about 22km of beach as part of the International Coastal Cleanup initiative removed more than 25,300 items of rubbish - more than 1,000 pieces of man-made mess per kilometre.

"The unbelievable thing about that statistic, is that 86 per cent of marine litter in Hong Kong is land-based," said environmental consultant Lisa Christensen.

"People used to point the finger at the shipping industry, but it's not them, it's people on land being careless. They throw rubbish away and then the tide takes it out to sea."

A great deal of that rubbish will not sink, and will stay on the surface where it is easily mistaken for food by marine life and birds.

Ms Christensen's company, Ecovision, is working with the government to try to increase waste management infrastructure around the city's waterways.

"A lot of it is coming from hikers and campers {hellip} the problem is that there just aren't enough bins, but the government is coming around to that now.

"People just have to remember: what you take in, you take out."

I'm always feeling regretted and shame on HK people for piercing their own beautiful skyline when I ascend the Peak to see our so-called remarkable sight...

Any one here likes the IFC? My Korean friend said it's like a penis! There's no doubt that I agreed with him.

IFC is another type of pollution in my eye...

Waste incineration plans excite strong opposition
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
May 24, 2005

The SAR could have the world's biggest incinerator in 10 years time, the government said in a paper.

The new incinerator will burn up to 5,700 metric tons of solid waste daily, twice the capacity of Singapore's Tunas South Incineration Plant, the biggest in Asia at present.

But the idea did not generate any enthusiasm among green groups and legislators attending Monday's Legislative Council environmental affairs panel meeting.

The Environmental Protection Department, which says landfills will be full in six to 10 years time, said there is an urgent need to find an alternative.

It said incineration is the "most cost-effective" way of managing solid waste, and highlighted the need to build advanced and large-scale incineration facilities which will meet stringent emission standards.

The Environmental Protection Department said the government is considering building a centralized waste treatment plant that could process 7,200 tons of waste a day, of which 5,700 tons will be incinerated.

The plant will occupy up to 35 hectares - slightly less than the 40-hectare site of the planned West Kowloon cultural hub.

However, the government did not say how much the plant will cost and where it will be built.

Friends Of The Earth staged a protest outside Legco while the meeting was in progress.

The group's environmental manager, Chu Hon-keung, said possible sites for the plant are in Tuen Mun or Tseung Kwan O.

However, he said the government is being "too aggressive" in planning to burn such a huge amount of waste every day, which could, in the long term, do more harm than good.

Chu pointed out that Taipei adopted a similar policy of incineration in the 1990s, but the volume of waste dropped 40 percent when the government introduced charges later for domestic waste and the incinerator was shut down due to the reduced waste. "It is difficult to maintain a high temperature in the furnace if the incinerator is used only occasionally,"Chu said.

Another problem is the dioxin that is emitted during incineration, no matter how high-tech the installation.

Chu said about 5,800 incinerators in Japan have been forced to close in the past seven years because of dioxin, which can impair the immune system and cause cancer.

He said incinerators are expensive to build, operate and maintain, and while it costs only HK$125 to treat a ton of waste at a landfill, it would cost HK$235 to incinerate the same amount.

Independent legislator Albert Chan said the government is dragging its feet with regard to the recycling of waste and is, instead, focusing on burning it.

Friends of the Earth assistant director Edwin Lau said the Environmental Protection Department is reneging on its promises.

"Although the government claims that the priorities of waste management are, in descending order, source reduction, recycling and landfill disposal, 99 percent of the HK$1.14 billion being spent on waste management this year will go to the end treatment of waste," Lau said.

Chu added: "Unless the government proposes a comprehensive policy for reducing waste at source, including the polluter pays principle, the public and Legco should not even consider the incineration plan."

HK gets First Sustainable Development Strategy
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
Government Press Release

The Acting Chief Executive, Mr Donald Tsang, today (May 24) described the issue of the first Sustainable Development (SD) Strategy for Hong Kong as the "first step in building a platform that will ensure a better quality of life for all Hong Kong people, both now and in the future."

While acknowledging the challenges involved in achieving sustainable development locally, Mr Tsang, who is also chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development, said that the first SD Strategy represented a "good start" towards achieving the council's vision for Hong Kong to be "a city for all to share and enjoy, for this and for future generations".

Based on the recommendations of the council, as set out in its report: Making Choices for Our Future, the Government has outlined a series of objectives and targets aimed at achieving sustainable solutions in three Pilot Areas - Solid Waste Management, Renewable Energy and Urban Living Space.

Speaking on the Government's commitments in the area of Solid Waste Management, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, said that the Government had largely adopted the targets proposed by the council for reducing the amount of municipal solid waste generated in Hong Kong.

These targets are achievable through joint efforts between the Government and the community and a number of measures will be in place to increase waste recovery rates and reduce the amount of waste that would need to be disposed of in landfills. These would include both education and financial means.

At the same time, as existing landfills will only last for another six to 10 years, the Government is looking into other sustainable and alternative technologies for treatment of unrecyclable wastes. The Administration will propose adopting a multi-technology approach to treat waste to minimise the volume of waste that needs to be landfilled.

In the area of Renewable Energy (RE), Dr Liao said the Government would step up public education and set clear goals for the increased use of RE in Hong Kong.

The Government will also build on plans to promote energy efficiency and conservation as part of an overall sustainable energy policy, she said.

With regard to Urban Living Space, the Director of Planning, Mr Bosco Fung, acknowledged stakeholders' concerns on sustainability issues such as the need to protect the natural environment and cultural characteristics of rural areas, while having regard to Hong Kong's long-term socio-economic needs.

Mr Fung said the Government would take account of these concerns in further planning the development of the New Territories. He also stressed the Government's commitment to speed up urban renewal through a "people-oriented" approach and flexible deployment of the "4R" strategy - redevelopment, rehabilitation, preservation and revitalisation.

The Chair of the Council for SD's Strategy Sub-committee, Ir. Otto Poon, said that the publication of the first SD Strategy was a significant milestone on the road towards Hong Kong becoming a sustainable world city.

"It is important that we build on this initial effort in partnership with people from all walks of life," he said.

The Government's First SD Strategy for Hong Kong is available on the SD Strategy website (www.susdev.org.hk).

Hong Kong, China sign deal to tackle air pollution
Thu May 26,10:21 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong has signed a co-operation agreement with the Chinese government to tackle the worsening air pollution on both sides, the city's government said.

"Air pollution has no boundary," said K.K. Kwok, Hong Kong's permanent secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works (Environment).

"The signing of the co-operation arrangement will strengthen co-operation between the two sides."

The agreement was signed Thursday by the State Environmental Protection Administration in China and Hong Kong's Environment Protection Department.

Under the deal, the two sides will exchange knowledge, views and experience in air pollution control; joint studies will be commissioned on policies and technologies for tackling air pollution, an official statement said.

Areas of their focus include vehicle emission standards and control technology, control of ozone depleting substances as well as air quality monitoring for pollutants.

They will also discuss strategies for controlling sources of air pollution and toxic air pollution as well as alternative fuels for vehicles.

Hong Kong is inundated on many days by a choking cloud of smog produced in large part by the factories, vehicles and power stations of neighbouring southern China's heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region.

The deal was welcomed by Martin Baker, director of Greenpeace in Hong Kong.

"This is something that we have been calling for for a while. Anything that promotes better co-operation between the mainland environmental authority, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta is a very good thing," he said.

Hong Kong, China sign deal to tackle air pollution
Thu May 26,10:21 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong has signed a co-operation agreement with the Chinese government to tackle the worsening air pollution on both sides, the city's government said.

"Air pollution has no boundary," said K.K. Kwok, Hong Kong's permanent secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works (Environment).

"The signing of the co-operation arrangement will strengthen co-operation between the two sides."

The agreement was signed Thursday by the State Environmental Protection Administration in China and Hong Kong's Environment Protection Department.

Under the deal, the two sides will exchange knowledge, views and experience in air pollution control; joint studies will be commissioned on policies and technologies for tackling air pollution, an official statement said.

Areas of their focus include vehicle emission standards and control technology, control of ozone depleting substances as well as air quality monitoring for pollutants.

They will also discuss strategies for controlling sources of air pollution and toxic air pollution as well as alternative fuels for vehicles.

Hong Kong is inundated on many days by a choking cloud of smog produced in large part by the factories, vehicles and power stations of neighbouring southern China's heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region.

The deal was welcomed by Martin Baker, director of Greenpeace in Hong Kong.

"This is something that we have been calling for for a while. Anything that promotes better co-operation between the mainland environmental authority, Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta is a very good thing," he said.

Poor response to recycling scheme
Sylvia Hui, Hong Kong Standard
May 31, 2005

The private sector has been called on to operate new waste sorting and recycling facilities planned for the SAR, but response is far from satisfactory.

The government has to invest HK$45.2 million in temporary construction waste sorting facilities planned for Tseung Kwan O and Tuen Mun because none of the four tenders received for the site was acceptable, the Environmental Protection Department told a Legco panel Monday.

The poor response drew criticism from legislators and throws a shadow over another, much larger, waste management facility that is planned.

The Ecopark in Tuen Mun, previously named the Recovery Park, is to be developed under the public-private partnership scheme.

Its basic infrastructure requires HK$316 million of government money, the department said Monday.

The temporary construction waste sorting facilities at Tseung Kwan O Area 137 and Tuen Mun Area 38, expected to be ready by the end of this year, may not generate much financial return in its initial stages, deputy director of the department Raymond Fan admitted.

Sorting fees would be HK$100 per tonne.

On the other hand, the more ambitious Ecopark planned for Tuen Mun is expected to provide permanent land to encourage long-term investment in the recycling industry and curb the over-dependence on export.

The government will pay HK$316 million to build the basic infrastructure of the 19-hectare site.

Tenants will be allocated lots from 400 square meters to 1,600 square meters.

Phase one of the development, occupying 8.4 hectares, will begin early next year and is expected to be ready for occupation by late 2006.

June 5, 2005
Waste management steps cut landfill growth

Hong Kong has succeeded in arresting the growth of municipal solid waste disposal in landfills for five consecutive years since 2000, reversing the trend of 3.5% annual growth before 2000, Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao says.

In the foreword to the Environmental Protection Department's latest annual report, "Environment Hong Kong 2005" published today, Dr Liao said good progress was made in waste management last year.

She credits enacting the construction waste disposal charging scheme ordinance and launching a pilot scheme for household waste separation for the improvements.

With a theme of "A Shared Responsibility for a Sustainable Future", the annual report emphasises the importance of shared responsibility to achieve a clean environment. It gives an account of progress made in improving the environment in 2004 and the challenges ahead.

On air quality management, Dr Liao said the Guangdong and Hong Kong governments are pressing ahead to implement the enhanced pollution control measures to achieve the agreed emission reduction targets of the four major regional air pollutants by the year 2010.

"We have also set up a regional air quality monitoring network which will start operation in 2005," she said.

Nearly all taxis fuelled by LPG

Locally, she noted that nearly all taxis were now fuelled by liquefied petroleum gas while about 80% of the newly registered public light buses ran on LPG.

The catalyst retrofit programme for older heavy diesel vehicles was completed last year while the installation of emission reduction devices for heavy diesel vehicles will become mandatory this year, she said.

As compared with 1999, the concentrations of particulates fell 9% and nitrogen oxides 24% at the road side last year.

Pilot scheme on conservation

Turning to water quality, Dr Liao said with public support, the Government will implement the second and final stages of the Harbour Area Treatment Scheme with a view to treating all sewage from both sides of the harbour by 2013.

On conservation, she said a new nature conservation policy with an implementation plan was promulgated last November.

The new policy aims to achieve the nature conservation objectives, in particular to enhance the conservation of ecologically important sites in private ownership.

"As part of the new policy, we are going to launch a pilot scheme for the new nature conservation measures to enhance conservation of the priority sites," she said.

Merger rises to challenges

Permanent Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works (Environment) Kwok Ka-keung, who also took up the duties of the Director of Environmental Protection after the bureau/department merger, said in his message 2005 will be a year of action.

In its new incarnation - combining the responsibilities and resources of a policy bureau and a department - the department will be well-placed to rise to the challenges to the environment, he said.

The annual report also gives an account of co-operation with regional and international organisations on protecting the environment.

Report available online

The full-colour report is printed with environmentally friendly ink on recycled paper, covering areas including community awareness, customer service and partnerships, environmental assessment and planning, air, noise, waste, water, and environmental compliance.

A pamphlet gives the public a quick grasp of the progress made in protecting the environment last year. Companion resource materials for the annual report, in CD-ROM form, summarise the progress with detailed figures, tables and charts.

The Chinese and English versions of the annual report, each with a bilingual CD-ROM attached, are now on sale at $100 each. The bilingual CD-ROM is also available for sale at $8 each. Orders can be placed at the Government Bookstore (http://bookstore.esdlife.com/), at the Information Services Department's Publications Sales Section, by phone on 2537 1910 or by fax 2523 7195, or by email to puborder@isd.gov.hk

The annual report, the companion resource materials and the pamphlet, are also available on the department's website (http://www.epd.gov.hk/).

LCQ7: The possible impact and harm caused by electronic wastes to environment and public health
Wednesday, June 8, 2005
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Martin Lee and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (June 8):

Question:

In view of the recent grave public concern about the possible impact and harm caused by electronic wastes to the environment and public health, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the definition of electronic wastes; whether it has assessed if the existing legislation regulating the import/export and disposal of electronic wastes is adequate and effective; if it has, of the assessment results; if the existing legislation is assessed to be inadequate and ineffective, whether it will consider formulating a long term policy on the disposal of electronic wastes, amending the existing legislation to deal with its loopholes and inadequacy, and strengthening the co-ordination of the efforts of various law enforcement agencies; and

(b) how obsolete computers in government departments were disposed of in the past, and whether any internal guidelines have been drawn up in this regard; if so, whether it has assessed if such guidelines comply with the principles of environmental protection; if it has, of the assessment results, and whether there is an independent body responsible for overseeing the implementation of the guidelines by government departments?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) There is no common definition of waste internationally. Generally speaking, electronic waste refers to abandoned electrical appliances for household and commercial and industrial purpose. Some electronic waste contains hazardous parts (e.g., cathode ray tube) or hazardous substances (e.g., cadmium, mercury, and lead). Its import and export are subject to the control of Waste Disposal Ordinance. The Ordinance is enforced by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD). In principle, a permit is required for the import and export of waste unless for the purpose of reuse or recycling. A permit or licence is required for the import, export and handling of electronic waste.

Under the Waste Disposal Ordinance (WDO), e-waste containing or contaminated by hazardous substances is regarded as hazardous. Schedule 7 of the WDO lists various common types of hazardous e-waste, including cathode ray tubes in computer monitors and television sets, abandoned components containing mercury, lead, nickel or other toxic heavy metals. The import or export of such waste requires a permit. A permit issued by the EPD is required for the import and export of e-waste. Any person who imports or exports e-waste without a permit commits an offence and is liable to a fine of $200,000 and six months' imprisonment for the first offence and a fine of $500,000 and two years' imprisonment for a second or subsequent offence. Illegally imported waste will be returned to their place of origin.

In 2004, the joint operations by the EPD and Customs & Excise Department against the import of hazardous e-waste resulted in a total of 83 consignments (involving about 1 500 tonnes of hazardous e-waste) being intercepted. The EPD served 52 summonses on the importers concerned and most of the illegally imported waste has been returned to their place of origin for proper disposal in accordance with the Basel Convention.

Apart from the above control on import and export, the EPD also monitor the operation of electronic waste workshops. The dust, noise, wastewater and waste generated by these workshops are regulated by the Air Pollution Ordinance, Noise Control Ordinance, Water Pollution Control Ordinance and Waste Disposal Ordinance and their subsidiary legislation.

Any workshop that dismantles e-waste classified as chemical waste (such as the cathode ray tubes in television sets) is required to obtain a licence. In 2004, the EPD found three operating electronic waste workshops that violated the law. Seven prosecutions were made under the Waste Disposal (Chemical Waste) (General) Regulation.

The EPD began a study in March 2005 on the introduction of a Product Responsibility Scheme (PRS) for various waste electrical and electronic appliances. Under the PRS, the producers, importers, retailers and consumers should share the responsibility for the proper handling of products at the post-consumption stage, with a view to reducing waste and raising the recovery rate. Drawing on overseas experience, we are conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the cost-effectiveness of various options, the impacts on the industry and stakeholders and other factors. We will consult the public on the scheme in due course.

(b) All Government bureaux and departments are required to follow Chapter XI of the Stores and Procurement Regulations of the HKSAR Government for the disposal of old computer equipment which have become surplus to their requirements. The Government encourages the reuse and/or recycle of these products by the following ways-

(i) seek possible utilisation within the Government;

(ii) arrange donation to organisations solely or principally for educational, scientific, cultural or charitable purpose;

(iii) arrange trade-in by contractors; and

(iv) arrange commercial disposal by public tender or auction.

The Government Logistics Department conducts regular checkings and surveys to ensure that the disposal arrangements of old computer equipment by all Government bureaux and departments are in line with the provisions of the Stores and Procurement Regulations.

Rubbish scheme may pay off
Campaign aims to recover one-fifth of domestic waste within two years
Ng Kang-chung
8 June 2005
South China Morning Post

Three or four years ago, waste recovery was a fresh idea favoured by expatriates and some yuppies in Hong Kong, while splitting dry and wet waste was almost unheard of.

Today, waste recovery facilities are becoming standard fixtures in residential buildings.

And in several years' time, the sight of residents carrying rubbish bags all the way to the rubbish separation room at the base of their buildings could become history.

With the support of property management companies, an Environmental Protection Department campaign is under way with the aim of recovering one-fifth of domestic waste within two years.

Under the source separation programme launched this year, waste recovery facilities - including racks, bins, or bags - will be placed on each floor of a building for residents to put waste paper, metal containers, plastic containers, and other recyclables.

A guidebook will be ready this summer to provide property managers with practical ways to separate and collect waste, while making sure fire safety will not be compromised when bins or racks are furnished.

"With well-managed facilities and nuisance-free collection of rubbish, residents can expect a cleaner, more hygienic living environment. And after all, they do not necessarily have to pay more," said Dr Ellen Chan, assistant director of environmental protection.

The results of a pilot scheme were encouraging, said Dr Chan, citing residential estate Heng Fa Chuen, Eastern district, where the sale of recyclables brought an income of more than $100,000 to the property management company last year.

As of March, 167 housing estates had signed up to join the programme on source separation of waste, including 122 private and 35 public residential estates and 10 government quarters.

Rebecca Tam, community relations manager of property management firm Hong Yip Service, said the company was pleased to pitch in.

"Waste separation enhances the cost effectiveness of recycling, therefore giving incentives for recyclers to buy recyclables. The revenue to the residents may not be very much, but it certainly provides additional income, allowing us to pay the cleaning workers more," said Ms Tam, describing it as a "three-win situation".

In some of the estates, there was a 33 per cent reduction in waste, according to Ms Tam.

A spokeswoman for the Housing Society also said the response of residents at its estates was very positive. Many residents were satisfied with the improved living environment brought about after the implementation of the source separation scheme, she said.

The chairwoman of the Legislative Council panel on environmental affairs, Choy So-yuk, said the scheme deserved more input from the government.

"Source separation should not be treated as the only solution to our waste management problems. The government should also aim at waste reduction by, say, imposing plastic bag fees," said Ms Choy.

Last year, about 6.4 million tonnes of waste was disposed of in landfills. According to the government, the existing landfills can only last another six to 10 years if the amount of waste is not reduced.

Since the launch of the three-colour waste separation bin system in 1998, some 500,000 tonnes of paper, 20,000 tonnes of aluminium cans, and 4,000 tonnes of plastic bottles have been recovered. This amounted to a total market value of $500 million and a landfill cost-saving of $65 million, according to the Environmental Protection Department.

The recovery rate of domestic waste was 14 per cent as of last year.

The department hopes to increase it to 20 per cent in the next two years.

Greens hit out at lack of detail in pilot report
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standad
June 10, 2005

Environmentalists lashed out at the Environmental Protection Department Thursday for failing to release the full commissioning report on a controversial pilot trash-incineration project.

Green Island Cement, a subsidiary of Cheung Kong Infrastructure, was given a license by the government to turn solid waste into cement through the pilot incineration plan at Tap Shek Kok, Tuen Mun.

Under the plant's license, Green Island has to submit the commissioning test report to demonstrate its ability to meet the requirements specified by the EPD. A Green Island official called the test results "excellent."

Initial stage tests were carried out from April 19 to 25, and the EPD received Green Island's 127-page commissioning test report on May 24.

However, instead of releasing the full report, EPD Thursday issued a one-page written reply as "summarized findings."

The reply did not offer any figures, only mentioning that the pilot project had experienced some process "fluctuations" regarding emission data during the initial tests and "no incident of significant impact was recorded."

"Green Island has identified improvement initiatives to improve the process of the pilot plant," an EPD spokeswoman said.

Other information, such as the exact amount of waste burned and the amount of fuel consumed during the trial burn, was not mentioned.

The green groups criticized EPD's information as being "oversimplified" and not offering the full picture to the public. "The emission value might mean nothing if a little amount of waste was burned," Greenpeace campaigner Edward Chan argued.

Chan said he also fears the government will sanction the promotion of the controversial incineration technique as a long-term waste-management strategy for Hong Kong based on this "oversimplified summary."

He demanded the government release the full commissioning report to the public.

Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of Friends of the Earth, said, "The incineration is a controversial issue. If the government does not release more information, the public might become worried that there are hidden problems."

He said incineration of waste is a highly monopolized business which requires a high degree of transparency.

Green Island's executive director Don Johnston told The Standard that there were "two hourly fluctuations" of data which occurred during the start-up and close-down phases when waste was not being consumed.

But he stressed these were not significant and have been addressed by minor adjustments.

"The main improvements are in process monitoring, as well as in ventilation. Improvements on the already excellent daily emission results are not expected," said Johnston.

According to the license requirements, the "process monitoring" refers to the record of various parameters, including the air pressure inside the waste reception hall, temperature and the oxygen content of waste used for combustion.

Green Island said the daily emission results of the first trial were "excellent," and that the results for dioxin emissions, one of the most critical concerns among the public, were well below the license limit.

However, test result documents seen by The Standard in early May showed some other monitoring parameters failed to meet EPD standards set out under the Air Pollution Control Ordinance.

Under the license requirements, oxygen levels during incineration should be about 8 percent in the combustion chamber. But data recorded during a test on April 24 and made available to The Standard in early May showed that the oxygen level at 10.32am was 4.53 percent. At 11am, the oxygen percentage was just 5.76.

The test data also showed that the air flow at the emission point was 20,245 cubic meters per hour, while license conditions stipulate that the required level should not be greater than 15,200.

Green Island's general manager Choi Ka-keung in May said there was a pump failure during the test, adding the incinerator's system alarm went off twice.

"The alarm [went off at] about 9.30am on April 25 when the water pump failed," he said, adding the failure was the result of a motor burn-out. The company will proceed with further commissioning tests which are tentatively scheduled to start on June 13 and to last for two weeks.

Green Island said about 30 tonnes of waste can be incinerated every day.

Drop the mask - Hong Kong's worsening smog problem is being filtered into a pot of gold by a clean-air provider
Stuart Biggs
21 June 2005
South China Morning Post

In a world where almost every tourist destination has an associated ailment, Hong Kong fares better than most. Kathmandu, after all, has its quickstep, which becomes two-step in Tasmania and belly in Delhi, while travellers fear Montezuma's revenge in Mexico and Tutankhamen's curse in Egypt.

Thanks to its (relatively) clean water, Hong Kong escapes the worst toilet references, but "Hong Kong nose" - officially rhinitis - is the term used to describe headaches, nasal discharges and nausea associated with breathing in the city's increasingly notorious pollution.

While Hong Kong pollution does the tourist board no favours, smog and coughs are a business opportunity for a young firm in Central.

Oxyvital began life in Hong Kong in 1999 running an Oxygen therapy bar in Wellington Street, but has since branched out into large-scale air purification systems for offices and entire developments.

"The idea [behind the oxygen therapy bar] was for people to go there and to have a clean environment, to breathe clean air, and to have a nice sip of fresh orange juice," said Oxyvital managing director Ilse Massenbauer-Strafe.

"This was just a philosophy, but the lifestyle in Hong Kong is such that people don't just go to one place to breathe clean air, because then they think they waste their money by going outside in the street again.

"More and more clients asked to have the machines at home so they could sleep in clean air, so that took us in this new direction."

Oxyvital's answer to Hong Kong's dirty air harnesses technology used in the medical field of kidney treatment. Using a natural substance called zeolite, found in rock formations around the world, Oxyvital's patented process exploits zeolites' ability to dismantle dangerous pollutants.

"Polluted air is passed through the zeolite, where it is broken back into the original gas molecules, so [the equipment acts as a] processing plant," said Massenbauer-Strafe.

"The air has to be there for a specific period of time, known as the contacting time."

Sound technology does not always lead to sound profits, but Oxyvital believes it is in the right place at the right time in Hong Kong. The firm's products are currently processing air in 1.2 million sq ft of office space in Central, with clients ranging from Hongkong Land to garment manufacturer Li & Fung.

"I think the days when you were able to sell just a harbour view or access to the MTR have gone. People will start to ask, 'Is it healthy for me to work in this area?'" Ms Massenbauer-Strafe said. "They will ask what you as a building owner are doing to make [them] safe indoors."

The World Health Organisation estimates that up to 30 per cent of new or remodelled buildings globally cause some form of sick building syndrome and that, in the worst cases, up to 85 per cent of the occupants suffer symptoms.

A study by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology's centre for coastal and atmospheric research found that air pollution could be a factor in up to 15,000 deaths a year in Hong Kong.

Oxyvital said a major part of the problem was that air conditioners were pulling polluted air from the streets, exacerbating their negative effects in an enclosed space, not to mention the fact air pumped out to the street was worse than when it was pumped in.

"With our solution we have the potential to not draw so much air from outside the building because we keep very good air quality inside," Ms Massenbauer-Strafe said. "Also the air we blow back to the street is not as polluted."

Oxyvital said a growing number of corporations were warming to the idea of cleaner air in their offices.

"The big players are starting to come in now and they do see the need," she said. "The corporate identity they want to show is that they care about their employees and the environment."

Oxyvital also lists customers in Thailand, Korea, Macau, Taiwan and the mainland, but the firm's main focus remains Hong Kong.

"There are so many buildings in Hong Kong and I really want to have at least 20 per cent of them - because I just want to see the sun shine again," Ms Massenbauer-Strafe said.

Emission cuts 'too costly' for HK
Sylvia Hui and Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
June 21, 2005

An energy company-sponsored report has assailed the Hong Kong government's plans to cap carbon-dioxide emissions, saying they could hurt the economy - and even worsen global warming.

The study was conducted by the Australian APEC Study Center and sponsored by US-based Exxon Mobil, the world's biggest producer of fossil fuels, which produce carbon dioxide when burned.

While critics called the report biased, shortsighted and irresponsible, Dr Alan Oxley, chairman of the Australian APEC Study Center, said it would be very costly for Hong Kong to adopt the strategy set out in the Kyoto Protocol, which requires developed countries to reduce energy consumption.

The center, which studies issues concerning Asia-Pacific economic cooperation, is a unit of Monash University in Melbourne.

Citing Taiwan as an example, the report said imposing a carbon tax of US$22.20 (HK$173.16) per ton of carbon dioxide could cost the city about 1.5 percent of gross domestic product.

Applied to Hong Kong, it would amount to an annual cost of US$2.5 billion, based on the territory's total economic output of US$164 billion last year. Globally, the cost of adopting the Kyoto Protocol could be higher or even double that of the effects of global warming, the report said.

Oxley said imposing caps on carbon-dioxide emissions in Hong Kong not only would not have meaningful global significance, but would also worsen pollution regionally and globally, because the policy would cause businesses to relocate to the mainland, where electricity generation is less environmentally efficient.

"I see no point in Hong Kong taking any action if other economies [which have not ratified the protocol] are not doing the same," he said, reasoning that voluntarily reducing Hong Kong's emissions would lower its competitiveness.

"The costs of cutting emissions are so large ... the negative results outweigh the presumed advantages."

Hong Kong has no international obligation to reduce its carbon-dioxide emissions, the report said. The territory also has very low per-capita carbon-dioxide emissions among the developed economies selected for comparison, contributing only 0.18 percent to global emissions, Oxley said.

He expressed doubts over the emissions trading scheme planned by the Hong Kong and mainland governments. "I don't know how it can work," he said.

Instead, both Oxley and Jonathan Law, public affairs manager of Exxon Mobil Asia Pacific, said an effective alternative to capping emissions is research to develop new technologies for reducing greenhouse gases.

The report further argues that research behind the key claim that the 20th century was the hottest in the millennium has been demonstrated as faulty. "More scientific studies must be conducted before taking action that will slow economic growth, especially if we have an alternative option - developing technology," Oxley said.

Greenpeace energy and climate campaigner Gloria Chang, however, said there is a consensus that global warming is an urgent crisis, and its damage has been demonstrated in our region. "Saying a carbon tax will lead to economic detriment is very biased. The economy is only one of many factors we should consider, alongside social and health costs. Taking one factor to justify their cause is simply shortsighted," she said.

That the report is sponsored by Exxon Mobil and the Australian government largely undermines its credibility and fairness, Chang added.

"Australia is the most stubborn government after the United States [in opposing international environmental agreements]. Its carbon-dioxide emissions are soaring, but it has never ratified the protocol," she said, adding that Exxon played a major role in persuading the US government to oppose the protocol.

Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of Friends of the Earth (HK), said the report is "irresponsible" in avoiding the issue of social costs.

"A United Nations report issued on World Environmental Day said the social cost of pollution in developed countries is 2 percent of GDP, and 5 to 20 percent in developing countries. The report did not touch on this key area," Chu said. Every Hong Kong citizen produces six tonnes of greenhouse gas per year, but the government has not addressed the issue, he added.

International obligations to reduce emissions are not only limited to the protocol, Chang and Chu said.

The Hong Kong government agrees. "Although Hong Kong is not required to achieve a concrete emission reduction, we should play our part in slowing global climate change by controlling our greenhouse gas emissions," an Environmental Protection Department spokesman said.

Since 2000, carbon-dioxide emissions by Hong Kong's largest energy provider, CLP Power, have climbed back up after reductions in the late 1990s. The company said last year's emissions were affected by the shortage of natural gas, which forced it to burn more coal.

"Hong Kong is a developed economy and should be working with other developed ones in Europe, which are committed to emission reduction targets," Chang said.

LCQ4 : Monitoring of air quality
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Choy So-yuk and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (june 22) :

Question

It is anticipated that cross-boundary vehicular traffic will rise sharply upon the completion of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor next year and the scheduled commissioning of Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge in 2010. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council whether:

(a) the authorities have measured the existing concentration levels of air pollutants (including sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, suspended particulates and ozone) at locations along these two highways for use as the base of reference for the future, and for assessing the relevant figures of the air pollutants at these locations, and even in all districts in the territory, upon the commissioning of the highways;

(b) the authorities will monitor the air pollutant concentration at the relevant locations in the long run after the commissioning of the highways; if so, of the details of the monitoring; if not, the reasons for that; and

(c) the above-mentioned information will be made public; if so, of the timing and manner in which the information will be released; if not, the reasons for that?


Reply

Madam President,

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) operates an air quality monitoring network of 11 general and three roadside monitoring stations in the territory, to monitor the concentrations of major air pollutants, including sulphur dioxide, total suspended particulates, respirable suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and lead. The compliance with the Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) as recorded by this network has been used as an indicator of air quality in different districts of Hong Kong. In terms of long-term air monitoring, the two existing monitoring stations at Yuen Long and Tung Chung will facilitate the monitoring of the overall compliance with AQOs in North West New Territories and South West New Territories after the commissioning of the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western Corridor (HK-SWC) and the future Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge (HZMB).

Regarding the HK-SWC, the environmental monitoring and audit programme for the Hong Kong Section of the project requires the monitoring of the project's impact on air quality during the construction stage. As for the Hong Kong Section of the HZMB and its connecting roads, the consultant of the Highways Department is conducting an environmental impact assessment which includes an air quality assessment and the formulation of environmental monitoring and audit recommendations.

The EPD has published data from the monitoring stations on the Internet on an hourly basis, and will continue to release the air quality data to the public in this way.

So much Reading. :runaway:

City still choking despite $1.2b spent to cut fumes
Sean Gallagher, Hong Kong Standard
July 7, 2005

The government has failed to improve air quality - despite spending more than HK$1 billion to reduce diesel emissions, a Legislative Council committee said Wednesday.

A detailed report by the Public Accounts Committee said:

"The committee is gravely dissatisfied that, although, about HK$1.2 billion has been spent so far on implementing the measures outlined in the 1999 policy address to reduce vehicle emissions, the air quality in Hong Kong has not improved."

In 1999, then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa announced to Legco that the government would allocate HK$1.4 billion to help combat emissions from diesel vehicles.

To date, HK$1.2 billion has been spent on retrofitting liquified petroleum gas (LPG) taxis, pre-Euro diesel light vehicles, non-long-idling pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles and electric light buses.

The remaining HK$200 million will be spent on modifying long-idling diesel heavy vehicles and LPG light buses by the end of the year. There are 18,138 taxis and more than 5,500 buses in Hong Kong.

Tung stipulated that, by 2005, he wanted to cut respirable suspended particulate (RSP) emissions - which are a component of smog - from diesel vehicles by 80 percent and nitrogen dioxide emissions by 30 percent.

Six years later, this goal has been met. The report found that, at the end of 2004, RSPs had been reduced by 79 percent and nitrogen dioxides by 39 percent in urban areas.

However, the former chief executive also announced that, by cutting these pollutants, air quality would improve and would be comparable to that in London or New York City. The respiratory health of citizens would also be substantially improved, said Tung.

But committee chairman Philip Wong said this has not occurred.

"When the administration sought funding approvals for implementing the measures, it had not informed the Legislative Council that the reduction in vehicle emissions might not bring about an improvement in the air quality," Wong said.

In order to reduce emissions, the government introduced an ultra-low sulfur diesel.

All diesel-vehicle owners were also required to retrofit their vehicles with a device that would reduce RSPs. The report stated that the program was successful at "achieving the target to reduce vehicle emissions."

But, according to Environment, Transport and Works Secretary Sarah Liao, cutting diesel emissions was not enough to improve air quality.

"Diesel vehicles were only one of the sources of air pollution," she said in the report to the committee.

"Other major sources of pollution came from pollutants generated by industrial and commercial operations and power plants in Hong Kong and in the region."

Wong said the program also has to focus on private vehicles, as there are 517,000 private cars in Hong Kong.

"The government should look more at cars as pollution makers," he said.

Wong said one of the problems may have been the fact that the RSP-elimnating devices were placed in vehicles by their owners.

In future, this will be carried out by specially designated agents.

On the brighter side, Wong said the money spent was not a total waste.

Pointing out that there has been a reduction in diesel emissions, he added: "If we didn't spend that sum of money, we would have even worse air quality."

July 6, 2005
Roadside air quality improves
Environmental Protection Department

Roadside air quality has improved since the Government launched vehicle emission controls in recent years, the Environmental Protection Department says.

In response to media enquiries on Public Accounts Committee Report No.44, which covers diesel emissions, the department said it will consider the committee's recommendations in detail and take follow-up action.

It said between 1999 and 2004 the measures have reduced roadside respirable suspended particulates by 9%. The improvement came despite a rise in respirable suspended particulate levels at general air quality stations by 15%, due to deterioration of general air quality in the Pearl River Delta Region.

The department said it will continue efforts to reduce vehicle emissions and will work closely with Guangdong to improve regional air quality through implementing a Regional Air Quality Management Plan.

July 18, 2005
Government Press Release
Air quality readings available soon

Air quality readings for the Pearl River Delta may be released regularly within the year. The move is pending the evaluation of technical competence of the Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network.

This was the message from Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau Director Li Qing who met Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao today.

Mr Qing said Hong Kong and Guangdong are satisfied with the implementation of the network, and look to allow public access to its findings.

The officials also exchanged experience in vehicle emission control measures. Dr Liao said both will co-operate in preparations for the adoption of more stringent vehicle emission and fuel standards.

Experts in action call on smog
Doug Crets, Hong Kong Standard
July 20, 2005

Failure to stop Hong Kong's worrying rise in air pollution levels has produced frustrated calls by environmentalists and health experts to move forward and protect the city's health and quality of life.

Their comments came after Secretary for Transport, Environment and Works Sarah Liao met mainland officials Tuesday but failed to produce any new action in fighting the smothering mucus that has become a hallmark of the Pearl River Delta's economic growth.

"This [meeting] is not to discuss new measures or set new standards. We are actually implementing what we have already agreed, and this is to exchange ideas on how to do better," Liao said at SAR Government Headquarters.

An environmentalist for a leading non-government organization said the lack of any new outcome to drive down high levels of airborne chemicals and particulate matter is "regrettable."

"It's an understandable, but regrettable, situation where the Hong Kong government feels it has to tread very carefully when it deals with Guangdong," said Bill Barron, a senior analyst at Civic Exchange, the civil society and environmental activism organization founded by Christine Loh.

Liao met a delegation from six mainland cities, headed by Li Qing, director-general of the Environmental Protection Bureau of Guangdong province, to discuss moves made in 2003 to cut the amount of four major pollutants - sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter and volatile organic compound - by 20-55 percent by 2010.

But the meeting was more about "exchanging ideas" than coming to terms with a manageable solution to halt the rise in air pollution smothering the Pearl River Delta, Liao said.

Barron said recent weather patterns reminded Hong Kong residents that when winds change, stuffier slow-moving air settles in the region and air pollution caused largely by Hong Kong-owned factories envelops the territory. "The fact is, everyone in the delta is experiencing quite serious health impacts from all this," he said.

Elevated air-pollution levels, a daily occurrence in Hong Kong, point to a "continuum of risk" that plagues local people's health, said a specialist in respiratory medicine.

"We have said, and will continue to say, that most of the damage to health is being done by the average levels of pollution," said Anthony Hedley, chair of community medicine at Hong Kong University.

The fact that no agreements have been made meant that officials had not taken seriously enough the need to make drastic changes to air quality and people's health in the region.

"It represents a failure of public health and environmental policy," Hedley said.

According to the Environmental Protection Department, which monitors air quality at street level and, in a more general way, at 14 monitoring stations around Hong Kong, 12 of those stations registered "high" pollution levels Tuesday. All but two stations listed suspended respirable particulates as the main contributor to the smog. This heavy particulate matter comes from sulfur-laden diesel fuels used by mainland trucks and the power generators for several thousand factories.

It mixes with burn-off from dirty fuels to produce sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and even heavy metals, which adversely affects the lungs, the heart and the blood vessels leading to asthma, heart disease and death.

Both Guangdong and Hong Kong have improved the air quality on their own since the 2003 Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network to make the public well aware of air pollution issues, Liao said.

Guangdong has switched its public buses to liquid petroleum gas, while Hong Kong buses still rely on diesel, she said. "Our condition is different [to Guangdong] because our buses are double-deckers."

Li said Guangdong needs time to catch up with Hong Kong's level of auto-emission standards and the cleanliness of the fuel it uses because, "Hong Kong and Guangdong have different economic and technological conditions."

But Barron said it is not just auto emissions. A short-term solution to poor air quality is to influence Guangdong to resort to cleaner fuels by courting Hong Kong-owned businesses across the border. In 1990, Hong Kong banned the use of high sulfur-fuels and went to ultra-low sulfur diesel for trucks and machinery. Now, that same high-sulfur fuel is being used in greater quantity as the Pearl River region develops rapidly.

"In energy economics, the first step is virtually always cleaner fuel," Barron said.

Hedley said a groundswell of support and criticism over nasty air has an effect on the way everyone sees Hong Kong's quality of life.

"I think we will see more outspoken statements about the need to do something about air quality in the whole of the Pearl River Delta. The concern for Hong Kong people is long overdue."

No clean air by 2010, warns official
Cheung Chi-fai
23 July 2005
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong will fail to honour its agreement with Guangdong to improve air quality by 2010 if the power suppliers cannot meet emission caps to be imposed by the government, an official source warned yesterday.

The warning came as CLP Power and Hongkong Electric said they would only meet the targets in 2012 and 2011 respectively under their just-approved financial plans, which also include new anti-pollution investment.

"The power suppliers have to comply with the new caps as we have a deal with Guangdong," a government source said, adding that Guangdong producers had been "vigorously retrofitting" their polluting power plants to honour the agreement.

So far, Hong Kong is not close to any of the targets, with the SO2 level at least 40 per cent higher than 1997 due to more reliance on coal-based power generation.

The two power suppliers will play a critical role in meeting the targets because they account for 92 per cent of SO2, 58 per cent of nitrogen oxides and 46 per cent of particles emitted in Hong Kong.

The source urged the suppliers to speed up the implementation of the clean-up programmes or risk being prosecuted and heavily fined under the air pollution control ordinance. The ordinance requires the power plants to renew their specified process licences regularly.

The environmental watchdog will impose new emission cap conditions in licence renewals between this year and 2010.

"They will have no choice but to satisfy the emission cap conditions," the source said. However, CLP Power will still have two of four generator units not equipped with desulfurisation devices by 2010 under its $3 billion retrofitting programme from 2007, according to the source. CLP planning director Chan Siu-hung said the 30-year-old Castle Peak plant did not have enough space for the equipment and the programme had to be completed gradually from 2009 to 2012.

"It is very challenging to meet the government's high standards," he said.

Informed Hongkong Electric sources said yesterday that the company would spend $2 billion to install low-nitrous-oxide burners and desulfurisation devices at its two generation units and planned to convert an oil-fired unit to gas-fired. As it was very expensive to cut particle emissions, the source also expected that it would be necessary for the two suppliers to engage in a pilot emission trading scheme with Guangdong power plants.

Pollution fear amid high power waste in households
Winnie Chong, Hong Kong Standard
August 8, 2005

Hong Kong residents waste about 850 million kilowatt hours of electricity every year and this is equal to releasing more than 500 kilotons of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, according to a pro-Beijing political party.

That finding came after the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong interviewed 1,126 residents in an attempt to gauge usage patterns in their households.

About 30 percent reported they "always" or "usually" switched on almost all their lights at home, even in those areas that were not in use.

Nearly one-fourth said they preferred to use blankets or wear more clothes rather than turn down air-conditioners.

About 60 percent said they kept TV sets on even if they were not watching.

More than 10 percent "sometimes" or "always" used their washing machines even when the loads were small.

About 40 percent "do not" or "seldom" use energy-efficient electric bulbs.

The wastage accounts for about 9 percent of the 9.5 billion kilowatt hours of electricity used in private residences a year.

The party said the wastage translates into a cost of HK$76.7 million every year.

On average, families pay HK$350 each year for electricity that is not used.

The DAB also claimed that the electricity wastage resulted in 570 kilotons of carbon dioxide, which will require an additional 38,000 trees to be planted to absorb the greenhouse gas.

Legislative Council environmental affairs panel chairwoman Choy So-yuk, who represents the party, said the public had little or no concept of energy saving.

"People use electricity whenever they like without considering how wasted energy impacts on the global environment," she said.

Choy urged residents to be more careful, to switch off lights when they are not needed, and to turn on the TV only when watching programs.

Electrical appliances should be switched off and not be on stand-by mode when not in use, she said.

Choy appealed to the people to set their air-conditioners at higher temperatures and to use fans instead when possible.

"They should also use washing machines only when they have enough clothes for a full load," she said.

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Gloria Chang said people should learn to save energy in their daily lives.

But she said a bigger source of pollution was the power companies that used coal.

Chang urged CLP Power to move towards wind-generated power and the government to tackle pollution at the source. In 2004, total carbon dioxide emissions by CLP plants amounted to 16,867 kilotons

CLP airs warning on emission targets
Monday Ng, Hong Kong Standard
August 12, 2005

Hong Kong's biggest electricity provider CLP Power may fail to meet the cross-border agreement on particulate emissions, according to the company's managing director.

The company is seeking ways to approach the agreed target by buying ultra low sulfur coal and installing anti-pollution equipment, but green groups say these moves will not be enough.

According to the 2002 Hong Kong-Guangdong Joint Study on Air Quality in the Pearl River Delta, emissions of respirable suspended particulates, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and volatile organic compounds from Hong Kong amounted to 12.85 kilotonnes, 77.48 kilotonnes, 113 kilotonnes and 55.8 kilotonnes respectively in 1997.

In April 2002, the Hong Kong and Guangdong governments signed an agreement to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by 40 percent, nitrogen oxide by 20 percent and RSPs by 55 percent by 2010.

"The requirement is too high for current technology to attain," said CLP Power managing director Betty Yuen.

She said it would be a "challenge" to comply with the terms of the agreement because the company had reduced RSP emissions by 99.4 percent in the seven years leading up to 1997 and that there is no technology available that can reduce its particulates emissions further in a cost-effective manner.

She said air quality cannot be improved by CLP's actions alone.

"I think it needs a collaborative effort from the many bodies involved, the industries and power stations in Hong Kong and the PRD, and the transport sector," Yuen said.

CLP Thursday signed a five-year contract with an Indonesian supplier for 10 million tonnes of ultra low sulfur coal for use at its Castle Peak Power Station. The Indonesian coal has a super low sulfur content of 0.1 percent, and will enable CLP Power to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by almost a third by 2007.

Yuen said the move will not lead to higher electricity prices as the the low sulfur coal costs about the same as the coal currently in use.

CLP also plans to retrofit four generators with equipment to reduce emissions.

Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide would be reduced by more than 90 percent and 80 percent, respectively. According to CLP's annual report, its three local plants emitted 53,400 tonnes of sulfur dioxide, 23,800 tonnes of nitrogen oxide, and 2000 tonnes of particulates last year.

CLP said the anti-pollution equipment offered "the best available technologies" and can help it meet the targets of the Hong Kong-Guangdong agreement or even better.

Environmentalists said the moves are not aimed at tackling the cause of the problem.

"There is no point in installing anti-pollution devices after you have polluted the environment," said Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Gloria Cheung.

She said the equipment to be installed by CLP will only ease pollution in the short term.

"Users are going to bear the huge cost of building these devices. Based on the polluter-pays principle, the electricity company should bear the cost," said Cheung.

She also criticized CLP for not disclosing the name of the mine that will supply its low sulfur coal.

"There is no such thing as clean coal, in our group's opinion," she said.

Cheung said CLP should disclose the composition of its new coal, such as the levels of charcoal, heavy metal and sulfur.

The best way to reduce air pollution is to phase out coal completely as a source of fuel for power plants, she said.

The Environmental Protection Department included an emission cap as a condition of CLP's license renewal for two years starting this month.

Scheme may be breath of fresh air
Chester Yung, Hong Kong Standard
August 22, 2005

Cross-border emissions trading promises to be cost-effective way of cutting Pearl River Delta pollution Asia's first cross-border emissions trading scheme, proposed between Hong Kong and Guangdong, is the most cost-effective way of improving Pearl River Delta air quality, according to Roy Tang, the Deputy Director of Environmental Protection.

The plan is designed to address reducing the emissions of respirable suspended particulates - tiny particles which permanently lodge in the lungs and which are one of the major pollutants affecting SAR's air quality, Tang said in an interview.

Emissions trading is a market-based tool used to reduce air pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing emissions. Instead of direct regulation of emissions by law, market forces decide the actual cost of pollutant emissions.

Applied to the power industry, the regulatory authority sets an emission limit, or "cap," on pollutants.

Companies that reduce their emissions below the cap can obtain credits from the relevant authority that it can then sell to power companies whose emissions are over the cap and need the credits to offset its excessive emissions. Polluters are thus made to pay for the cost of pollution.

Local environmentalist opinion is often dubious about the plan, warning that the crucial question faced by emissions trading schemes is to establish a meaningful cap under which emissions credits can be traded.

Hong Kong officials have been working on air pollution with their Guangdong counterparts since the late 1990s and, in 2002, agreed to cut the amount of four major pollutants - sulphur dioxides, nitrogen dioxides, RSPs and volatile organic compounds - by 20 to 55 percent by 2010.

While there is no firm date on when emissions trading will commence, the government hopes to have it in place by 2010.

However, according to financial plans approved by the government, both Hongkong Electric and CLP Power have failed to address the issue of reducing particulates and only plan to meet most of the targets by 2011 and 2012 respectively. Tang said it is "nearly impossible" for the two companies to further cut the particulates, and the emissions trading scheme, similar to those that have operated in the United States and European Union, seems a solution.

"I believe the cost of emissions trading will be much lower than using other [costly retrofit] technologies to cut RSPs." Tang said.

If air quality for the entire region improves, Tang said, Hong Kong's citizens will benefit in the long run.

Environmentalists say the critical question that must be faced in emissions trading is the establishment of a meaningful cap. Since both Hong Kong and China have different standards for emission reduction, setting a cap that is agreeable to both areas is crucial.

"I worry that the cap will be set at a generously high level and become meaningless in controlling the emission," said Greenpeace campaigner Chow Sze-chung.

Currently, the mainland's Air Pollution Prevention and Control Law does not contain provisions for emission trading. Chow said he is concerned about how to create big enough incentives for power plants to take part in the scheme voluntarily.

Tang said the State Environmental Protection Administration is considering drafting a law on emissions trading on the basis of the experience gained from the pilot schemes now being run in seven provinces.

Tang added that he believes the market price of suspended particulates will be lower than other pollutants on the current emission trading market in Europe, especially in the context of the mainland which is "famous for low-cost products."

It can be an incentive for the Hong Kong power plants to join the scheme, Tang said.

Unlike carbon dioxide, which has been traded long enough to establish a recognized market price, Tang said the RSPs - as a previously untraded item - might have a greater flexibility when it comes to setting the price.

However, Chow is concerned that the mainland's soaring demand for electricity might hinder the operation of the scheme. "The SAR government claimed it would be cheaper to trade RSPs than use existing technology to cut them locally," he said. "But if the price is too low, the mainland companies might not be willing to sell credits. Instead, mainland power plants might use the emission credits to build new units, given increasing local demand for electricity."

Tang answered that he doesn't expect this to happen.

"Whenever there is a shortage of emission allowances in the market to meet the demands, the market price will be adjusted upward automatically to attract the potential sellers," he said.

"Like other emission trading systems, we expect that the power stations will only be allowed to stock up their emission allowance for a duration of not more than a few years.

"To prevent depreciation of the values of the emission allowances, power plants with surplus emission allowances should be willing to sell the allowance in the market to generate economic return."

Stop taking the easy option on waste disposal, green group urges
Waste not, burn not, was the message delivered by a green group Tuesday when it called on the government to concentrate more on waste separation than incineration when dealing with the SAR's rubbish problem.
Winnie Chong, Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Waste not, burn not, was the message delivered by a green group Tuesday when it called on the government to concentrate more on waste separation than incineration when dealing with the SAR's rubbish problem.

Using the occasion of the Global Day of Action on Waste and Incineration, which was celebrated by environmental activists in 35 cities around the world, the Hong Kong branch of Friends of the Earth accused the government of taking the easy option of incinerating garbage instead of trying to reduce waste at its source.

The group's environmental affairs manager Hahn Chu said about 45 percent of paper and plastic bags and bottles in domestic waste can be recovered. However, he said the current waste recovery rate of Hong Kong is only 14 percent - far lower than other Asian countries. For example, it is 35 percent in Taiwan and 47 percent in South Korea. FoE calculates that a 20 percent increase in the city's recovery rate would reduce garbage by 1,400 tonnes a day.

Every 1 percent rise in the recovery rate of domestic waste translates into a daily reduction of 70 tonnes, which would save between HK$16,450 and HK$28,000 in incineration costs.

The Environmental Protection Department will start building an incinerator in March, one of the world's largest, that can burn up to 5,700 tonnes of solid waste daily as part of the centralized waste treatment plant that will process 7,200 tonnes a day.

FoE assistant director Edwin Lau said incineration is two to three times more expensive than the landfill operations.

Recycling waste also creates economic benefits. Last year, some 230,000 tones of recycled waste was exported, generating HK$3.4 billion in revenue, Lau said, adding that the government's HK$5 million budget for an Environmental Conservation Fund to promote source separation of domestic waste was far too little.

However, the government called FoE's claims "totally unfounded." An EDP spokesman claimed Hong Kong has achieved a waste recovery rate of 40 percent, similar to many developed countries.

The government will outline its strategy on waste management in a White Paper in October to address the waste management issue and to conserve resources, said the government spokesman. The final construction and operation cost of the new incinerator was not yet known, he added.

Green group warns worst year for Hong Kong air pollution
Wed Sep 7, 3:38 AM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong's air pollution is expected to hit new highs in the coming months, a leading environmental group has predicted, as smog levels in the city hit their highest level for the year so far.

A noxious haze descended over the southern Chinese territory in the morning as typically settled weather took hold sending the pollution gauge above the "very high" rating of 100 on the pollution index.

Readings that high carry an automatic health warning urging people with breathing or heart problems to remain indoors.

Roadside pollution monitors recorded even higher levels on Wednesday and pedestrians with respiratory illnesses were warned not to walk near busy traffic centres.

Friends of the Earth Hong Kong (FoE) said they expected smog levels this year to be even worse than last, which saw the pollution scale tip 200 for the first time.

"The sources of pollution -- factories, cars and power stations -- have done nothing since last year to clean up their acts and more factories and cars are in operation in China this year," said FoE director Hahn Chu.

The organisation estimates that some 80 percent of the pollution experienced in Hong Kong drifts in from southern China's heavily industrialised neighbouring Pearl River Delta region, the country's economic powerhouse.

Chu said the continuation of a power shortage that set in on the mainland last year would exacerbate the problem.

"New factories are opening but there isn't enough power capacity from the clean power producers so they are reopening older plants that had been mothballed because of their poor emissions and efficiency," he said.

Chu blamed Hong Kong-based companies that own factories in China as well as the government of southern China's Guangdong province for doing little to improve matters.

"There is always lots of talk but to make things better would mean spending money, which they don't want to do," he said.

China Light and Power, the region's largest power producer, refuted claims it was among the worst polluters.

"We have just signed a deal to source ultra-low sulphur coal," said a spokeswoman. "We are constantly seeking to improve our emissions."

Disney's `daily dose of dirt'
Hong Kong Disneyland's nightly fireworks display will make air quality in 2005 even worse than it was in 2004, environmental group Friends of the Earth said Wednesday.

Andrea Chiu and Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, September 08, 2005

Hong Kong Disneyland's nightly fireworks display will make air quality in 2005 even worse than it was in 2004, environmental group Friends of the Earth said Wednesday.

Last year, the pollution index soared to 200 for the first time. An index of 100 prompts the government to recommend that those suffering from respiratory illnesses or heart problems stay indoors.

Air pollution readings Tuesday at the roadside station in Central rose to 103 and in Causeway Bay to 101. It was 138 at Tung Chung.

FoE assistant director Edwin Lau said, since Hong Kong has no plan to reduce air pollution from vehicles, power plants and industry, the city's air quality has not improved. Combined with the nightly fireworks displays at the theme park, Lau said people should expect more polluted air.

He said fireworks can make smog worse because the smoke releases heavy metal compounds into the air.

Disney was unavailable for comment, but a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department rejected FoE's accusations.

"The Air Pollution Index represents air pollution of a large area. The nightly fireworks display at Disneyland will not affect the API levels," he said.

In July, the Islands District Council received more than 30 complaints from Discovery Bay and Peng Chau Island residents when Disney began testing its fireworks show.

FoE and other groups have been lobbying for Hong Kong Disneyland to use the air-launch fireworks the company is required to use at its California park, wh
ich reduce noise and air pollution by up to 60 percent. The company hasn't explained why it refuses to use these environmentally friendly fireworks, but says the nightly displays follow all current regulations required by law.

Lau and the EPD agreed that Hong Kong is especially susceptible to air pollution because of its location at the mouth of the highly populated and industrialized Pearl River Delta.

"Our city design is much more crowded than other cities," Lau said. "Space here is so narrow, it creates such a canyon effect that pollution cannot diffuse, and it gets trapped among tall buildings."

Environmental concerns are not the only thing plaguing Disney in the run- up to its opening.

On Monday, government and company officials said they were considering lowering the park's daily capacity of 30,000 visitors due to long lines on Sunday's "charity day."

In July, the theme park took shark fin soup off its banquet menu after pressure from animal-rights activists.

FoE also warned Wednesday that the theme park risks becoming known as a "rubbish-land" if its does not take immediate steps to cut down on excessive waste.

"Disney will be producing about 7,300 tonnes of waste per year, which is equal in volume to about 30 giant Buddhas [on Lantau]," said FoE Hong Kong environmental affairs manager Chu Hon-keung.

The group spoke out after receiving a complaint from Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong legislator Choy So-yuk, who took issue with the her invitation to the theme park's opening, which came in a gaudily-decorated container the size of a mooncake box.

Choy, who also chairs Legco's environmental affairs panel, said the invitation package amounted to "excessive waste."

"Disneylands around the world try to create an image of happiness, but this is negated by its extravagance and waste. Disney as a global brand should take the lead in upholding corporate social responsibility." Choy said.

In a report submitted to the Environmental Protection Department earlier this month, Disney said it expects daily waste from its catering facilities to be around 20 tonnes, with a further 100 kilograms from the fireworks displays.

The chairman of the Wan Chai District Council, Ada Wong, said the box- sized invitation was neither trendy nor beautiful and, consequently "will eventually be dumped in our landfills."

"It is just a waste," Wong said, adding that she planned to exhibit the box at a secondary school as an example of how a large corporation ignores its environmental responsibility.

Chu said Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao, as a member of Disney board of directors, should keep a close watch on what was happening and urge the company to reduce its sources of pollution.

Disneyland spokesperson Esther Wong said Disney takes environmental protection very seriously, but added: "Both the grand opening of the park and our guests are very important to us, so we wanted to make a special invitation for a special occasion."

Hong Kong's residents generate 7,014 tonnes of domestic waste every day, 3,805 tonnes of which are recyclable. The government earlier said the current landfills could be filled to capacity within six to 10 years if both domestic and industrial waste was not significantly reduced.

Trading solution for pollution
Local smog will only worsen unless mainland and Hong Kong groups can work together

Monday, September 12, 2005
Hong Kong Standard

Local smog will only worsen unless mainland and Hong Kong groups can work together, writes Gavin Bowring

What does Hong Kong's inescapable smog blanket have in common with chronic mine disasters?

The answer is that they are inextricably linked by one common factor - China's insatiable appetite for energy to feed a booming economy.

Pollution is an unwelcome visitor from manufacturing plants throughout the Pearl River Delta. Every day, more than US$300 million (HK$2.34 billion) worth of goods are produced by tens of thousands of factories in this region, 90 percent relying on electricity mostly produced by burning coal or other cheap fuels.

Despite solid pollution control advances in Hong Kong since the mid- 1990s - which initially led to improvements in air quality before 2002 - the positive effects were eventually offset by rising demand for energy, reversing the trend, with Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao repeatedly stressing that Hong Kong's ability to change the situation is extremely limited.

Hong Kong officials have been working on air pollution with their Guangdong counterparts since the late 1990s and, in 2002, agreed to cut the amount of four top pollutants - sulfur dioxides, nitrogen dioxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds - by 20-55 percent by 2010 through emissions trading.

While there is no firm date on when emissions trading will begin, the government hopes to have it in place by 2010. It is a market-based tool used to reduce air pollution by providing economic incentives for reducing emissions. Instead of direct regulation of emissions by law, market forces decide the actual cost of pollutant emissions.

Applied to the power industry, the regulatory authority sets an emission limit, or cap, on pollutants.

Companies that reduce their emissions below the cap can obtain credits from the relevant authority that it can then sell to power companies who are over the cap and need the credits to offset the excess amount. Polluters are thus made to pay for the cost of pollution.

Hong Kong Civic Exchange, a local think-tank, is proposing a new policy direction that " requires the engagement of businesses operating in the PRD to change their energy practices," according to a paper it released in April.

The situation has reached crisis levels, the group believes. Air quality in the territory reached record poor levels last year, according to various government reports.

The proportion of good air quality days in Hong Kong, as measured by Air Pollution Index readings, has fallen from 45 percent in 2001 to 35 percent last year.

Last week Friends of the Earth warned that the air pollution levels will be much higher this year compared with 2004.

Greenpeace also says Hong Kong's daily API reading, based on a system implemented in 1987, is outdated. The group argues that with tighter air quality standards, such as those used by the European Union, the local API will be much higher.

In other words, if this was Luxembourg, a "moderate" API day will likely be classified "very high" or even "severe."

It is only going to get worse. In recent years power demands in Guangdong have exceeded supply.

During the first three months of this year, Guangzhou authorities reported the worst power shortages in a decade with supply restricted in various areas on 716 occasions, costing the city 10 billion yuan (HK$9.59 billion) in lost industrial output.

As a result, estimates by China Light and Power, Hong Kong's biggest electricity company, reveal that as many as 90 percent of the region's factories run their own private "backyard" generators to cope with their energy needs and these small generators have little or no emissions controls.

Also, these factories often guzzle low quality, high-polluting fuels in order to reduce costs.

Considering that many factories in China are owned and managed by Hong Kong-based firms, Civic Exchange is hoping this will give it leverage in spreading their message.

Civic Exchange chief executive Christine Loh hopes that by shedding light on the heavy financial, environmental and health costs of pollution, that industries will stop using dirty fuels.

"At the moment, the severe damage to the environment, public health and well-being of 50 million people in China is currently being treated as external costs," the Civic Exchange report said. "For instance, the value of damage to the health of the people of Hong Kong and the PRD is not being factored into the cost of goods produced in the region."

The World Health Organization reported in 1998 that seven of the world's dirtiest cities were in China. An estimated 178,000 people die prematurely in mainland cities each year due to air pollution.

According to a recent report by the Business Environment Council, a Hong Kong-based independent, cross-sector business association, there are about 70,000 factories in the Pearl River Delta with some form of Hong Kong investment.

"Given Hong Kong investment in the PRD, there could be a significant near-term opportunity to address Hong Kong's air pollution imports from nearby Guangdong through the development of private sector voluntary initiatives among Hong Kong owned or managed businesses with factories there," the report said.

Civic Exchange suggested that the campaign could be carried out with the help of local and international chambers of commerce and industrial federations and associations.

"However, even if energy supplies improve, it will take strong regulation on the part of the authorities as well as awareness-raising among manufacturers to stop using dirty fuels before the situation is likely to improve, as there may well be a temptation to continue using lower quality fuels to keep costs down," said Loh.

When asked whether the campaign will have a chance of succeeding, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce senior director WKChan replied: "No matter how successful it is, the fact is that we can't get away from this pollution."

According to Civic Exchange's report, alternative energy sources should also be encouraged.

"The ability of the authorities in Hong Kong and Guangdong, the richest areas in China, to manage and improve air quality in the future represents a proxy discussion about how China can develop in a sustainable manner," notes the Civic Exchange report.

However, Loh said: "While these official efforts are important, they are unlikely to be sufficient."

City chokes as smog hits year's high
Pollution index passes 150 in Causeway Bay, Central, Mongkok
Robin Kwong
13 September 2005
South China Morning Post

Air pollution in the city's busiest urban areas yesterday reached a new high for the year for the second successive day as thick, grey smog cut visibility to as little as 2km.

Eclipsing Sunday's levels, roadside monitoring stations in Causeway Bay, Central and Mongkok recorded Air Pollution Index (API) levels of 164, 158 and 151 respectively. The readings the previous day were 138 at Causeway Bay, and 120 at Central and Mongkok.

The peak levels were recorded at 10am. An easterly wind later cleared some of the muck, but by 7pm the indices were still well above 100.

API levels of 100 to 200 are defined as "very high" by the Environmental Protection Department. People with respiratory problems are advised to stay indoors.

A departmental spokesperson said intense sunlight aggravated the formation of smog, and still air meant pollutants were not dispersed.

Hong Kong Observatory senior scientific officer Cheng Cho-ming said the wind had increased after mid-day.

"There is now an easterly wind blowing through Hong Kong," Mr Cheng said yesterday afternoon. "Lowest visibility on Hong Kong waters has gone up to at least 3km."

Mr Cheng said the stronger wind was likely to continue for the next few days.

Environmental group Friends of the Earth criticised the government's explanation. "They've turned the cause and the effect around," the group's environmental affairs manager, Hahn Chu Hon-keung, said.

"The real reason behind the pollution is local power generators and automobiles. The government's policy regarding this area is too slow and we doubt their commitment."

He suggested the government should push the city's energy companies to develop renewable energy for the Pearl River Delta and also to pursue more aggressively measures to increase energy efficiency.

"If we use less energy, then we won't have to produce as much. But we feel that we are doing more than the government is on some initiatives, like keeping air conditioners at 25 degrees," he said.

Advocacy group Clear the Air, which has said the government's methods for determining the API were too lax, agreed that more needs to be done to improve air quality.

"We need to cut vehicular emissions by half, not 10 per cent," said vice-chairman Annelise Connell.

Benefits of recycling going to waste in untapped market
There is money to be made in the "circular economy" - recycling - but the government has to be the catalyst, said Francis Lui, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of Science and Technology.

Andrea Chiu
Thursday, October 06, 2005
Hong Kong Standard

There is money to be made in the "circular economy" - recycling - but the government has to be the catalyst, said Francis Lui, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of Science and Technology.
Lui made the statement at a "Turning Waste to Business" seminar hosted by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

"This is a market waiting to be to tapped," Lui said, adding that Hong Kong is nowhere near its optimal waste recovery rate.

Using the recovery rate in the US state of Massachusetts - which has a similar population and a far more advanced recycling industry than Hong Kong - Lui asserted that a proper recycling industry could pump HK$6.5 billion into the economy and create 20,000 jobs.

He acknowledged that profit margins in the circular economy are slim at present but with government initiatives recycling could be profitable.

He urged the government to provide more incentives such as land and subsidized rent, as it has done at the 20-hectare EcoPark recycling site in Tuen Mun. He said the government should implement a green procurement policy to create demand for green products.

The director and general manager for Swire Sita Waste Services, James Tam, said he liked the idea of such a policy but was more wary of land allocation and rent subsidies.

Tam said he was concerned with what companies, especially small- to medium-size ones, are expected to do if given a rent subsidy.

"Subsidies are necessary but the government should decide subsidies based on market demand," Tam said.

Lui also suggested a user-pays program that would reduce natural resource waste.

Hong Kong produces 850 kilograms of municipal solid waste per person per year, one of the highest rates in the world.

Environmental Protection Department deputy director Raymond Fan, who also spoke at the seminar, said less than 10 percent of waste is recycled in the SAR. "That's a lot of wasted opportunity."

It has been proven that the circular economy can be profitable, Fan said. "There's no reason why it shouldn't start now."

In a strategy paper published by the Sustainable Development Council in May, the government outlined seven steps towards solid waste management. In addition to considering solid waste charges, the government will also develop a policy to promote recycling.

It said polluter-pays charges will be implemented through fiscal measures such as product responsibility schemes and a green tax.

Fan said his department is considering pay-as-you-go as an option to reduce waste. "When you put an economic value on solid waste, people will sit up and listen."

He declined to reveal the details but said his department is working on a waste management package.

Hong Kong, the invisible harbor
By Hanny Wan
Bloomberg News
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2005

HONG KONG Tony Wong, an executive at Ho Wai Printing & Publishing in Hong Kong, says he used to enjoy clear days when he could sit in his office in Chai Wan on the island's eastern tip and see across the harbor to Kowloon.

"It's extremely hard to see clear blue sky now" because of an increase in air pollution over the last decade, said Wong, who some days has difficulty breathing.

As China's economy booms, pollution from factories in neighboring Guangdong Province is drifting across to Hong Kong, mixing with the emissions of a growing number of cars and driving smog levels to records.

The bad air is repelling foreign executives and costing companies more than $90 million a year in medical costs and lost productivity, according to research by CLSA.

"Hong Kong is going backward in terms of pollution," said Anthony Hedley, chairman of the department of community medicine at the University of Hong Kong. "The government has been noninterventionist to the point of being really negligent."

Public outrage this week prompted Chief Executive Donald Tsang to describe the issue as a "grave concern." He has promised tougher vehicle emission limits and increased cooperation with the Guangdong government, including the establishment of an air quality index for the Pearl River Delta.

The Hong Kong government is spending an estimated 399.6 million Hong Kong dollars, or $51.5 million, in the year ending March on enforcement of air pollution controls.

China, with seven of the world's 10 most polluted cities, has spent 280 billion yuan, or $34.6 billion, in the past five years to counter air pollution, according to the government's 10th Five-Year Plan for Environmental Protection.

Regional headquarters and offices set up by foreign companies in Hong Kong named pollution as one of the top three issues they want to bring to the government's attention, according to a Census and Statistics Department report last month. An American Chamber of Commerce survey last year showed that the quality of natural environment is one of the most unfavorable factors affecting member companies' continued investment in Hong Kong.

On average Hong Kong experiences low visibility every five days, according to a CLSA report in April. Good air-quality days fell to 35 percent last year compared with 45 percent in 2001, it said. Singapore is by far the cleanest city in Asia in terms of air quality, while Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei enjoy better air than Hong Kong, the report said. Hong Kong's air is worse than New York City's, according to the local research group Civic Exchange.

Hong Kong's ability to attract overseas talent is suffering as a result of the pollution. Jens-Erik Olsen, chairman of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, said that each year at least two or three people declined offers to work in the Hong Kong offices of member companies because of pollution.

"We need to have a livable environment," Olsen said in an interview. "It's going to cost us in the future if we don't clean up here."

Five years ago, air quality was not a concern when people considered whether to relocate to Hong Kong, said the Jardine Engineering chief executive, James Graham. "Hong Kong used to be a place where there were many advantages," said Graham. "One of the advantages was clean air. We can no longer say that."

Air pollution indexes in the city fall within the "high" category "virtually every day," said Raymond Leung, acting assistant director of the Environmental Protection Department.

Pollutants from the Pearl River Delta, fumes from automobiles and emissions from power plants run by CLP Power Hong Kong and Hongkong Electric are the major reasons for the city's smoggy skies, Leung said.

Greenpeace said this month that it had found toxic heavy metals in the fly ash that CLP produces. CLP said it has been using low-sulfur coal, and that more than 99 percent of the metals have been captured, according to Winifred Wong, public affairs manager in environmental communications. CLP has signed a five-year contract to import ultra-low-sulfur coal from Indonesia, and it will reduce sulfur dioxide emissions by one-third by 2007, she said.


Falling air quality in Hong Kong will affect the health of the city's residents long into the future, said Professor Lam Tai-hing, head of the department of community medicine at the University of Hong Kong.

"If air pollution affects our people at a young age, then we may see something more disastrous in the coming years," said Lam.

The city's attractiveness as a travel destination is also under threat, according to Mark Lettenbichler, chairman of the Hong Kong Hotels Association, and Selina Chow, chairman of the Hong Kong Tourism Board.

"It should be the government's number one priority," Chow said.


Local leaders complain that the people living in the Pearl River Delta, including Hong Kong, are paying with their health for the region's soaring production of goods for export. Guangdong accounts for 30 percent of China's exported goods.

"The increase in pollution has been due to China's energy crunch and people burning a lot of low-quality fuel," said Christine Loh, chief executive of Civic Exchange. "The external costs are all absorbed locally through low visibility, bad air, doctors' visits. The benefits are enjoyed by people in overseas countries."

I know what HK can do~!


Build huge fans along the border (or should I say northern boundary) and blow the dust back into Shenzhen.

Hong Kong chief urges industry to clean up its act
Monday October 17, 02:42 PM

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong's political leader Donald Tsang told businessmen to reduce pollution emissions from their factories in southern China blamed for the choking smog which often hits the region.

In his sternest warning to captains of industry, the chief executive said the problem was in Hong Kong's hands because its businessmen owned most of the factories across the border.

"The bulk of the manufacturing capability in (southern China) is owned by the people around us in this very room," Tsang told a luncheon meeting of Hong Kong's leading businessmen.

He warned that lower pollution cannot be achieved "unless you guys emit in your factories cleaner air not only in the Pearl River Delta but here as well".

Both the government and Friends of the Earth Hong Kong estimate that some 80 percent of the city's pollution comes from neighbouring southern China's heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta region.

Tsang's warning was timely, coming as the city was cloaked in a blanket of smog. The pollution reading nudged 100, a level which carries an automatic health warning with sufferers of respiratory problems urged to stay at home.

The chief executive, who was appointed by Beijing to lead the former British colony in July, said in his debut state-of-the-territory address last week that tackling the city's pollution problem was a policy priority.

However, he stressed Monday that progress would depend on cooperation with mainland authorities.

"This sort of thing takes a bit of time," he said. "Hong Kong has done what we can ... but we have to do a bit more as far as they are concerned in the mainland."

Planning solutions for air quality
Pollution-related sickness could be greatly reduced if the government adopts a more progressive planning and consultation process, conveners of a pro-business environmental advocacy group said.
Doug Crets
Hong Kong Standard
Friday, October 21, 2005

Pollution-related sickness could be greatly reduced if the government adopts a more progressive planning and consultation process, conveners of a pro-business environmental advocacy group said.

Thomas Tang, senior advisor to the Business Environment Council, and chief executive Andrew Thompson told a conference Thursday that case studies prepared by air pollution experts demonstrated "extraordinary and compelling" ideas to tackle the region's declining air quality.

It may have escaped the attention of Hong Kong's civil servants, but a quiet revolution is under way.

At the conference, called the Business-Led Initiative on Air Pollution in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, public transport franchisee City Bus, which operates 960 buses in Hong Kong, offered its buses for tests of the generically named "particulate removal device" - which ironically shares the initials of the Pearl River Delta, the region that produces most of the pollution choking Hong Kong.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University professors Ronald So, Lo Kok-keung and Cheung Chun-shun have used the device in an engine filter that reduces vehicle emissions. Tests on four-tonne buses showed a reduction in smoke opacity of between 31 percent and 65 percent and a "particulate concentration reduction" of between 18 percent and 57 percent" said Lo, who presented the ideas at the conference held at the council's headquarters in Kowloon Tong. The device, on average, nearly halves the exhaust emissions of cancer-causing particulates small enough to enter blood vessels and lining of the lungs.

Outfitting buses will cost about HK$10,000 per bus. Filters, changed about every 10,000 kilometers, cost HK$60 each.

Shum Yuet-hung, principal bus engineer for Kowloon Motor Bus, said the new thinking on buses is that "the heavy engine should have a higher axle ratio and a second overdrive," which means that it can carry heavier loads and go faster in the same gear as other buses. Such technology reduces fuel consumption by between 6 percent and 10 percent, and also cuts emissions. KMB has introduced 25 vehicles with this "eco-driveline" technology. Lab tests show that each converted bus should produce about 8,800 kilograms less of carbon monoxide a year, and 5.8kg less of particulate matter.

Shum stressed that the figures depend on bus load, route and speed. Nevertheless, every new bus ordered by KMB will be fitted with this technology.

Brian Neirynck, representing Oxyvital, which has sold air purification equipment to the government, referred to a Hong Kong University study showing that air pollution-related health problems cost Hong Kong HK$4 billion a year.

Neirynck said the government should ensure good ideas are rewarded, otherwise it will be difficult to make changes to the way Hong Kong deals with pollution.

"I know that we could move forward if that kind of help was available," he said.

But standing in the way is lack of a coordinated government policy to plan for these changes, Thompson said.

"The barriers [to fighting pollution] are not technologically driven, they are political-will driven," he said.

Thompson said the mainland government spends 1.2 percent of gross domestic product on fighting pollution.

"[But] if they spent 2 percent they would reduce pollution by 90 percent [and] they could save 6-8 percent on gross domestic product," he said.

HK-owned delta plants targeted in cleanup
Production processes which consume the most energy will be pinpointed
22 October 2005
South China Morning Post

The Environmental Protection Department is stepping across the border for the first time to study cutting pollution from Hong Kong-owned factories.

The department will identify the 10 types of production, such as paper- or furniture-making, that either pollute most or consume the most energy.

New or existing pollution-prevention measures might be tested to determine their cost-effectiveness, and guidelines drawn up for the approximately 70,000 Hong Kong-owned factories in the Pearl River Delta.

Speaking after a Legco environmental affairs panel discussion of the policy address, Deputy Director of Environmental Protection Esmond Lee Chung-sin said the study aimed to find efficient ways to reduce factory pollution.

"Some of the businesses do really want to do something but they might have no time or simply don't know how to start. We want to offer them some examples and demonstrations to make it easier for them to adopt a cleaner mode of production," he said.

The consultancy, by the Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council, comes amid other efforts to tackle industrial pollution in the region.

Companies on both sides of the border are being asked to sign a clean-air charter, one of the measures to come out of last month's conference involving Hong Kong and Guangdong officials. The pact, an initiative by the Business Coalition on the Environment, requires firms to reduce emissions.

The Federation of Hong Kong Industries has also attracted at least 60 factories - about half its target for the year - to its environmental programme, which encourages them to implement improvements every year.

"We welcome the [department's] study as it can complement what we are doing now," a spokeswoman for the federation said.

The study is also backed by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Co-operation. Under existing law, enterprises which successfully implemented measures to clean up production could enjoy tax concessions. But Mr Lee said the rules on tax concessions were very complex and it was still too early to tie their project with that.

Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung yesterday reiterated that tackling air pollution was a long-term battle.

Still, she dismissed the need for an air quality standard for very fine particulate matter with a size less than 2.5 microns (millionths of a metre), saying it was a "joke" if such a standard could not be met by Hong Kong at this stage.

Our air is killing us

The government is deceiving itself with a pollution index that is a "meaningless" indicator of health risks, Task Force on Air Pollution leaders claimed in a blistering presentation to the Hong Kong Medical Association Friday.

Albert Wong
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, October 29, 2005

The government is deceiving itself with a pollution index that is a "meaningless" indicator of health risks, Task Force on Air Pollution leaders claimed in a blistering presentation to the Hong Kong Medical Association Friday.

What's more, the task force's recent findings show a direct correlation between air pollution and risk of death, the co-chairmen of the body said, urging the government to come up with plans to tackle the problem.

Louis Shih, vice president of the HKMA, said that exercising in polluted air "can be more harmful than good," adding that families - and especially children - are better off staying indoors.

If if they venture out on days when pollution is high, they should wear masks.

The association found that air pollution can exacerbate asthma, cause lung function to deteriorate and raise the risk of cardio-respiratory death by 2 to 3 percent for every increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of pollutants.

The current air pollution index "gives a false sense of security," said Professor Wong Tze-wai, of the Department of Community and Family Medicine at the Chinese University.

"When you set your own standard, and then say you passed by 1 or 2 percent, then you are deceiving yourself. It's meaningless," Wong said.

"Why bother monitoring air pollution at all if it doesn't loosely tell you whether it is good or bad for your health?"

The government sets air quality objectives, Wong said. "But, until now, I still don't know the details of how this is defined or set."

He added that, in the United States, "the air standard is set at where it begins to affect your health," utilizing studies showing how and which air pollutants are harmful.

Such standards must be reviewed every five years in the United States. But in Hong Kong, the Air Quality Objective has not been reviewed since 1987, when it was first implemented, he said.

According to the Environment Protection Department: "The overall policy objective for air quality management in Hong Kong is to achieve as soon as reasonably practicable, and to maintain thereafter, an acceptable level of air quality to safeguard the health and wellbeing of the community, and to promote the conservation and best use of air in the public interest."

"In this regard, Air Quality Objectives for seven widespread air pollutants were established in 1987, based on international standards as yardsticks for air quality management.

"These derived from scientific analyses of the relationship between pollutant concentrations in the air and the associated adverse effects of the polluted air on the health of the public."

Gary Wong, a professor at the Chinese University's Department of Paediatrics and School of Public Health, said that what really matters are the air's components, not whether there is a "high" or a "low."

Smaller particles are the really harmful ones since they cannot be blocked out, and reach directly into the blood, "which is why we say air pollution can have a direct effect on cardio respiratory death," the physician said. But, under the current index, "some harmful pollution components aren't even recorded," he added.

Chinese University's Wong said the risk of death can be twice as high near heavily traveled roads. "[That] is why we say this is a problem that affects every Hong Kong citizen. It is more universal than smoking - not everyone here smokes, but who doesn't breathe?"

Gary Wong cited a study conducted in Holland at residences 50 meters from a main road and 100 meters from a freeway. "In Hong Kong, some people may live only four or five meters from the road," he said. The task force commented: "The government has taken a fatalistic attitude, as if to say `We've done everything we can."'

Gary Wong pointed out that other countries at least have a strategic plan or a timetable to tackle the problem, but said he has seen no such thing here.

Wong-Tze-wai said: "A number of our studies have been commissioned by the government itself, so there's no excuse to say they don't know about [our concerns]."

Several health experts formed a committee in 1999 at the request of a government official - "whom I won't name" he said - and came to the conclusion that the definitions of the air quality index needed to be reviewed and tightened. "That's exactly what we are talking about now. We submitted it. We've heard nothing since. That was the end of it. We spent 18 months of our voluntary time, unpaid work. And anyway, it's outdated now. We'd have to do it all over again."

He added that traffic and coal- powered electricity stations are the primary causes of Hong Kong's air pollution.

Liao sees future car as smog solution

Looking far into the future, Hong Kong's environment chief said the government wants to clean up the smog with nonpolluting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a technology still in its infancy even in the United States.

Cannix Yau
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, October 29, 2005

Looking far into the future, Hong Kong's environment chief said the government wants to clean up the smog with nonpolluting hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a technology still in its infancy even in the United States.

Answering charges that not enough is being done to battle rising air pollution, Secretary for Environment Works and Transport Sarah Liao said Friday natural gas as a fuel source is impractical and foreign countries are gradually overcoming many technological issues for hydrogen use, such as developing tanks that can safely store hydrogen.

The big question now, she said, is infrastructure. "We need to better prepare ourselves by developing suitable infrastructure, including finding the right places to store hydrogen tanks and gas filling stations," she said.

The hydrogen fuel cell vehicle could take decades to perfect as the technology is still very new and expensive and there are no hydrogen fuel cell vehicle refilling stations in Hong Kong, only a handful in Japan and one in Singapore, according to Fuel Cells 2000, a group promoting the technology.

In the United States, automakers, along with federal officials, announced a joint program to develop vehicles that run on hydrogen two years ago.

Automakers expect to see hydrogen- powered cars mass-produced for the US market within the next 10-15 years.

Liao also said the joint measures agreed by Guangdong and Hong Kong to combat pollution in the Pearl River Delta have started to bear fruit with the recent installation of desulfurization devices at five power plants in the province at a cost of about 0.15 yuan (0.14 HK cents) per kilowatt hour.

Liao dismissed calls for introducing natural gas as a vehicle fuel, saying the government will have problems in finding locations for filling stations.

"It is difficult for us to find places to store natural gas and operate gas fill- up stations in a very crowded city like Hong Kong. We need to keep the natural gas tanks away from the [liquefied petroleum gas] tanks," Liao said.

The government has spent HK$1.2 billion on retrofitting LPG taxis and other vehicles while introducing ultra- low sulfur diesel to combat emissions from diesel vehicles.

According to an Audit Commission report in April, Hong Kong's air is among the worst in the developed world. The delta's rapid industrial development has been the leading cause of pollution, with about 80 percent of air pollutants in Hong Kong coming from the mainland.

Democrat Martin Lee said pollution has reached an intolerable level.

"Earlier I went to The Peak and I still saw thick smog clouding Hong Kong. Secretary Liao has explained that it was due to an increase of diesel vehicles in Guangdong. This is an unacceptable excuse," Lee said. "I think what Hong Kong people want are concrete results, not excuses."

Jasper Tsang of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong also criticized the government for not erecting noise screens on roads close to residential areas.

Liao said: "We need scientific ways to resolve the problem. We already have plans to tackle the noise problem. I hope you can be tolerant because we still need time to put the measures in place."

港應提高空氣質素標準
不能歸咎珠三角發電廠
29/10/2005
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【本報訊】本港空氣污染嚴重，間接令呼吸道疾病患者病情惡化及住院人數增加，中大專家表示，政府一直將空氣污染的責任歸咎於珠三角地區的發電廠，並未盡力作出改善，建議政府訂立更高的空氣質素標準，以及針對本港情況制訂控污措施。環境運輸及工務局局長廖秀冬表示，政府會帶頭改善空氣污染。

監測標準較歐美寬鬆
香港中文大學兒科學系及公共生學院授黃永堅指出，本港研究發現，若每立方米空氣中的二氧化氮含量上升十微克，市民因呼吸道疾病而要入院的個案，便會增加百分之三至八。他又引述外國研究指出，居住在馬路附近的居民的死亡率，亦會較其他人高兩倍，反映空氣質素與健康有密切關係。

香港中文大學社區與家庭醫學系授黃子惠表示，本港現時的空氣監測標準遠較歐美國家寬鬆，而空氣污染物中極微細的懸浮粒子能進入人體下呼吸道及血液，直接對健康構成影響，但政府卻沒有對其制訂標準。黃批評政府只將責任推給珠三角的發電廠，並沒有盡力改善本港的空氣污染，建議政府訂立更高的空氣質素標準，就管制污染物排放訂立明確時間表。

廖秀冬表示，政府會帶頭改善空氣污染，但強調粵港合作的重要性，她指出，廣東五間發電廠安裝脫硫裝置後，香港的空氣污染初步得到改善，在九月份，約有一百二十七小時的空氣污染指數超過一百，較去年九月的二百四十七小時少，她希望能持續得到改善。

LCQ5: Effectiveness of advising motorists to switch off vehicle engines while waiting
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon James Tien and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (October 19) :

Question:

In May 2000, the Legislative Council All-Party Clean Air Alliance proposed to legislate to require motorists to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting. However, the Government did not accept the proposal, only indicating that it would organize publicity and educational activities to advise motorists to switch off vehicle engines while waiting. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the number of complaints received by the relevant authorities in each of the past three years about motorists not switching off vehicle engines while waiting, together with a breakdown by class of vehicles;

(b) of the number of times staff of the Environmental Protection Department carried out operations in the past three years to advise motorists to switch off vehicle engines while waiting at the roadside, the total number of working hours spent on these operations, the total number of such advice given, and the percentage of motorists who heeded such advice by switching off vehicle engines immediately; and

(c) whether it has assessed the overall effectiveness of such publicity and educational activities in promoting compliance by motorists of vehicles of various categories; if so, of the criteria adopted for assessment and how the assessment results compare to the intended effects of such activities; whether it will reconsider legislating to require motorists to switch off vehicle engines while waiting?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Government is very concerned about the air quality in Hong Kong. We will support any useful measures that can improve the local air quality and seriously consider the implementation.

During 2000-2001, the Government conducted consultation on Legislative Council All-Party Clean Air Alliance's proposal to legislate to require motorists to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting. The issue was also discussed at the Legislative Council. The government also consulted the 18 District Councils and the transport trade associations as well as the relevant Legislative Council committee on the proposal. Views were different on the issue. In conclusion, we decided to draw up guidelines and join effort with the transport trade associations to appeal to drivers to reduce the nuisance caused to pedestrians and residents by idling engines.

The consultation results and the proposal were reported to the Panel on Environmental Affairs of the Legislative Council on 27 February 2001. The Chief Executive's Policy Address this year has reiterated that the Administration would issue guidelines to all government vehicle drivers to switch off vehicle engines while waiting and call upon private car drivers to adopt the same self-discipline.

In 2002, 2003 and 2004, Environmental Protection Department (EPD) received 238, 236 and 296 complaints against idling engines respectively. A breakdown of the complaints by vehicle types is in the Annex.

(b) In 2002, 2003 and 2004, EPD carried out 264 (528 man-hours), 267 (534 man-hours) and 366 (732 man-hours) operations respectively to advise drivers to switch off the engines of their vehicles while waiting at the roadside. During these operations, the EPD staff gave advice to all drivers who failed to switch off the engines while waiting. Based on the experience of the EPD staff, only a very small number of drivers disregarded the advice. Most of them would switch off the engines or drive away immediately. The advisory approach adopted by EPD in dealing with complaints about idling engines is quite successful. In the 770 complaint cases handled in the past 3 years, 77% (593 cases) did not attract further complaints from the complainants.

If the idling vehicle belongs to a company fleet operator, the EPD staff will issue an advisory letter to remind the management of the company to instruct its staff to switch off vehicle engines while waiting.

(c) Since September 2001, the Government has actively organizing promotional and educational activities on "No idling engines". The number of complaints received by the EPD was 285 in 2001, 238 in 2002 and 236 in 2003. The number of complaints received in 2004 increased to 296 because the number of complaints against tour coaches in 2004 was 56 more than that in 2003. We believe that the significant increase was due to the strong growth of the local tourist industry.

To tackle the idling engine problem of tourist coaches, we, together with Hong Kong Tourism Board, Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong, Tourism Commission and Transport Department have strengthened our publicity campaign of 'no idling engine' in 2004 for the tourist industry and prepared guidelines targeted specifically at the tourist industry.

EPD has also requested the Tourism Commission to issue a special circular to the tourist industry shortly before peak tour seasons to remind tourist coach drivers to switch off vehicle engines while waiting.

As I said earlier, of the 770 complaints received by the EPD in the past three years, 77% (593) did not attract further complaints from the complainants. Moreover, the Transport Department (TD) will issue warning letters to the public transport operators(e.g. franchised buses and public light buses), if their vehicles are under complaint, asking for compliance with the "No idling engines" guidelines. According to TD's records, of the 61 routes against which a warning had been issued in the past three years, 55 (90%) did not attract further complaints. As such, we consider the approach of advising drivers to switch off the engines while waiting through education and publicity effective.

The Government will continue to appeal to drivers to exercise self-discipline on "No idling engines" through promotional and educational activities.


The Number of Complaints Against Idling Vehicles Received by EPD
****************************************************************

Vehicle Class 2002 2003 2004
************* **** **** ****
Non franchised buses 65 73 123
Public light buses 62 49 64
Goods vehicles 47 45 57
Franchised buses 18 7 8
Taxis 9 5 7
Private cars 9 6 6
Government vehicles 2 4 3
Other types of vehicles 26 47 28

HK's smog a medical emergency, says scientist
30 October 2005
South China Morning Post

As the central government this week announced sweeping new measures to combat air pollution, an internationally respected local scientist described Hong Kong's air quality as nothing short of a medical emergency.

Anthony Hedley, of Hong Kong University's department of community Medicine, returned this week from a World Health Organisation meeting held in Bonn, Germany, to draw up air quality guidelines for the 21st century. Data gathered in Hong Kong featured prominently in the deliberations in Bonn.

Professor Hedley, who served on the advisory panel that reviewed the guidelines, said it was high time the government stopped pretending that pollution levels stipulated in our air quality objectives were safe. He said the new WHO guidelines, slated for release in December, are expected to be 200 to 300 per cent more stringent than those currently in use in Hong Kong.

"But even these are just numbers," he said. "It is now generally accepted that there are no safe minimum exposure levels."

Professor Hedley said that by using these obsolete guidelines to assess proposed developments, such as new roads, Hong Kong continued to raise pollution levels dangerously high.

But he reserved his strongest criticism for those who described pollution as an unavoidable cost of progress, saying that our health was effectively being stolen and sold by powerful economic interests that exert control over the government through, for example, the functional constituencies.

"We all want progress, yes, but at what price - our children's lungs? When all the hidden costs are taken into account, this is not economic development. It is economic disaster," he said.

"We are all probably suffering from chronic inflammatory changes in our pulmonary and cardiovascular systems. I can feel it right now, can't you? My eyes are stinging, and I am wheezing."

Professor Hedley also called on scientists in the public sector to speak out.

The government regarded academics in the private sector as "a damn nuisance", he said, so if those in the public sector could not afford to be critical "then where does the advocacy come from?"

Earlier in the week, the mainland's Academy on Environmental Planning said it estimated that more than 1,000 people die from air pollution each day in China. And the State Environmental Protection Administration announced in Beijing that government measures to combat air pollution would include blacklisting of heavily polluted cities for foreign investment.

Professor Hedley called on the Hong Kong government to show more leadership in combatting air pollution together with mainland authorities.

Nobody in the government had a clear brief to tackle air pollution, he said, and as long as this was the case he expected progress to be limited.

焚化爐勢重現香港
成本較堆填高數倍 2010年前不徵垃圾費
2005年11月7日

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葵涌焚化爐於1997年停用，是香港最後一個停用的處理都市固體廢物焚化爐。事隔不足10年，政府正部署建造新式焚化爐，處理垃圾 。（資料圖片)

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政府本月底將推出《都市固體廢物路向大綱》，謀求解決堆填區即將爆滿的問題。將軍澳堆填區現時每日處理8400噸垃圾，是本港處理最多垃圾量的堆填區。（資料圖片）

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政府將訂「先減廢、後收費」的10年處理垃圾大計，先完善回收系統，讓廢物有足夠渠道分類回收。（林振東攝）

【明報專訊】1997年起關閉的焚化爐，勢將「捲土重來」。政府權威人士向本報透露，醞釀多時的《都市固體廢物路向大綱》將於本月底出台，政府將訂出「先減廢、後收費」的10年處理垃圾大計，建議重建焚化爐，作為本港主要處理垃圾的工具。消息指當局會先手完善回收系統，在2010年前都不會徵收垃圾費，直至新焚化爐落成，才有可能需要徵費以應付高昂的營運成本。


新式爐污染物大減融入社區
2005年11月7日

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日本川口市的氣化熔爐於2002年興建，與泳池、康樂設施等組成朝日環境中心，成為當地社區的一部分。

【明報專訊】《都市固體廢物路向大綱》未出爐前，政府去年11月已率團到日本及南韓取經，然後定出8種技術組合，當中7種包括焚化技術。有學者指出，隨科技進步，新式焚化爐不單氣體排放符合國際標準，還可變身成社區設施，與民居並存。

HK air pollution keeping British businesses away

The British business community's main concern about setting up offices in Hong Kong is air pollution, a senior SAR official based in London said Tuesday.

Wendy Leung
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The British business community's main concern about setting up offices in Hong Kong is air pollution, a senior SAR official based in London said Tuesday.

Carrie Lam, the director general of Hong Kong's Economic and Trade Office in London, said in an interview with Radio Television Hong Kong aired yesterday that like businessmen from other countries, British investors would factor in their deep concerns about the sustainable development of Hong Kong, in particular the air pollution that now severely affects the SAR and Pearl River Delta, before they invested in the region.

"They [the British businessmen] would think that they themselves might be able to tolerate the air pollution in Hong Kong if they had to move to the SAR for business. But they don't want their children to suffer," Lam said.

The SAR maintains close economic and cultural ties with its former colonial ruler. In 2004, the United Kingdom was Hong Kong's eighth largest trading partner with total trade worth HK$94.7 billion, according to government figures. The British Chamber of Commerce represents about 500 companies with links to Britain.

An Environmental Protection Department spokeswoman responded that the SAR government has already taken measures to address overseas investors' worries. "As power plants are still the major source of air pollutants in the territory, our current primary task will be reducing air emissions from power plants," the spokeswoman said.

The department said it would also continue to cooperate with Guangdong authorities to resolve the air pollution problem. "Both the Guangdong and SAR governments are determined to meet the emissions reduction targets for 2010," she said.

Battle over bill for clean air

The battle intensified Tuesday over who will pay to clean up Hong Kong's smog-filled air and how quickly action can be taken, with CLP Power laying down demands in response to calls to lower its emissions.

Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, November 09, 2005

The battle intensified Tuesday over who will pay to clean up Hong Kong's smog-filled air and how quickly action can be taken, with CLP Power laying down demands in response to calls to lower its emissions.

Facing pressure from the government, CLP said it would accelerate clean-up efforts - if the government agrees to approve a new liquefied natural gas storage terminal for its Black Point power plant in Tuen Mun - and hinted it might pass on any pollution control spending to consumers.

CLP managing director Betty Yuen stressed Tuesday that the condition for meeting the targets is "that the government speed up the approval of the site for the project of LNG by the end 2006."

Hongkong Electric and CLP said in July that they may not be able to meet clean-up targets until 2011 and 2012, respectively.

In addition, neither was able to address the issue of reducing the amount of fine particulates, known as respirable suspended particulates. RSPs have been associated with respiratory health problems, including chronic bronchitis, asthma and emphysema.

Despite that lack of commitment, the Executive Council in July approved the utilities' respective financial plans. CLP Power's proposed total capital expenditure for the next three years is HK$23.8 billion, while that for Hongkong Electric over the same period is HK$12 billion.

Yuen said LNG is an environmentally friendly fuel that will result in significant reduction of emissions from currents levels.

She added that "bringing LNG to Hong Kong requires infrastructure" and that the company has chosen two potential sites - Black Point and South Soko Island - to build the LNG storage terminals.

She said the government's approval and land grant is the "critical milestone" in meeting the target.

Yuen acknowledged that tariffs might be adjusted because of the projects. "If our project is approved, then we will submit the plan to the government," she said. "The relevant facilities are part of production cost and we will spread it over a long period of time and then translate it into the tariffs."

The move brings what has been intense behind-the-scenes jockeying into the open at a time when CLP appears to be negotiating a new Scheme of Control agreement with the government.

Under the Scheme of Control agreements, a key determining factor in how much users pay for their electricity, the two power firms are allowed an annual 13.5 percent rate of return on fixed assets, and 1.5 percent return on assets financed by shareholder funds.

At the same time, public pressure on the government to clean up Hong Kong's air is intensifying.

The mainland and SAR governments agreed in 2002 to cut emissions of four major pollutants - sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, RSPs and volatile organic compounds - by 20 percent to 55 percent by 2010.

Tsang attempted to pressure CLP Power and Hong Kong Electric to cut down pollutant emission by imposing new conditions in the new Scheme of Control agreement in order to meet the emission targets agreed between the SAR and the mainland government.

Asked if the move was an attempt to create a desirable relationship with the government to bargain for more favorable terms in the new SOC agreement, Yuen said: "It is not an exchange."

An Economic Development and Labour Bureau spokesman last night made no comment on the new move and its implication to the SOC agreement.

Greenpeace air pollution campaigner Chow Sze-chung criticized the CLP for what it claimed was passing the responsibility of emission reduction to the government.

Breath of fresh air sorely needed

Been to Victoria Park lately? If not, you should take a stroll through it soon, especially the area by the fountain. There are some new, lofty trees. They have given this small corner of Hong Kong Island a certain grandeur which no concrete tower can bestow.

Choy So-yuk
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Been to Victoria Park lately? If not, you should take a stroll through it soon, especially the area by the fountain. There are some new, lofty trees. They have given this small corner of Hong Kong Island a certain grandeur which no concrete tower can bestow.
It shows us how much more appealing Hong Kong can be, and most importantly, it suggests how much a role trees can play in giving us a healthier life. It also tells us that we have the means and the skill to make Hong Kong one of the most verdant cities in the world. It is not difficult particularly because of our climate, and in spite of rocky soil and our terrain.

To some of us who are deeply concerned with the environment it may seem an impossible task because our administration is suffering from a seemingly incurable disease - inertia.

They cannot move themselves to introduce laws that will protect our trees. In this respect the only good thing that can be said about our administration is it has very strong roots. They go back to prehistoric times when anybody who felt the urge could just chop down a tree.

The only time in living memory when the administration was moved to protect a tree was when an over- burdened branch of the Wishing Tree in Tai Po came crashing down. And then only to set up a fence round the tree.

What we need at Tai Po and for trees all over Hong Kong is legal protection. But true to the spirit of inertia, Chief Executive Donald Tsang did not mention a single word about trees or their protection. Clearly this affliction reaches the highest level of government.

Why do we need laws to protect trees? Because we are up against the most powerful force in our city - the developers. They will never allow any tree to stand in their way. If possible they would pour concrete over every square inch of Hong Kong.

In North Point, Michelia Alba (white Champac), Chinese banyans and candlenut trees have been chipped beyond recognition. At Repulse Bay, on a lot leased out on short-term tenancy by the Lands Department, several dozen trees, decades in age, were chopped down. During the construction of a pedestrian walkway at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, more than 100 cypress trees were damaged by the contractor and had to be removed. At Greenwood Place in Tuen Mun, 130 trees were damaged or felled by the developer. On a 20,000-square-foot slope bordering Kwun Tung Road at Yuen Long, all trees were chopped down for no apparent reason.

At Braemar Hill, a property management firm chopped down 20 Cajeput trees, orange jasmines and 10 azaleas while at Beacon Hill in Kowloon Tong a developer damaged or destroyed 250 trees. All these happened this year; none with the approval of the Lands Department. They form only a small proportion of the damage done to trees all over Hong Kong year after year.

Tsang declared in his policy address that his aim is to build a harmonious society. I can tell him, with hand on my heart, that on pollution the community is united - with only a few exceptions. The community wants pollution wiped out as quickly as possible.

Everyone, except the developers perhaps, realizes that trees gather up much of the particulates, which we don't want in our lungs instead.

Trees do much more than collect particulates. They make our city more liveable. They reduce noise and glare. They stabilize soil, preventing landslips. More trees can help to cool down our city and reduce reliance on air- conditioning, not to mention softening the harsh concrete that is all around.

From this perspective we can easily see the need for laws to protect trees to protect ourselves. In particular our health.

Why is it so difficult for the administration to understand this? When was the last time our chief executive took a walk through Victoria Park?

Choy So-yuk is the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong spokesperson on environmental affairs

Hong Kong hits out at foreign air polluters
Maritime sector called on to make greater contribution to cleaner air, writes Keith Wallis in Hong Kong
16 November 2005
Lloyd's List

The Hong Kong Shipowners’ Association has criticised some maritime groups outside Asia for doing little to tackle marine air pollution until forced to by new regulations.

Association managing director Arthur Bowring said that effort needs to be made “to find economically sensible solutions to reduce the pollution caused by exhaust emissions”.

He said: “We are frustrated by others in the industry in other parts of the world that do not seem to have woken up to the urgency of the issue, preferring to sit on their hands and wait until new regulation is introduced before doing anything.”

Mr Bowring warned that if nothing is done beyond Marpol Annex VI the proportion of pollutants from ships will increase to become one of the major sources of air pollutants. Giving his annual review ahead of the association’s annual meeting tomorrow, Mr Bowring said air quality was already suffering from toxic air, largely from China’s manufacturing powerhouse in the Pearl River delta.

Although most of the pollution was from factories, power stations and traffic, he continued, the maritime sector was also contributing to the problem, especially along the busy shipping and ferry routes between Hong Kong and ports and cites in southern China.

One group, which conducted an air sampling programme to assess the different types of pollutants, has found marine fuel residues in samples taken along the Pearl River estuary. A report on the findings is expected to be published by the end of this year but there has already been talk of creating a sulphur emissions control area in the region.

“The association is working with various groups in Hong Kong to study air pollution in order to find ways to urgently address the problem,” Mr Bowring said.

This includes explaining the problems, purchasing low sulphur fuel, the difficulty of converting vessels to operate on more than one type of fuel and of fitting air scrubbers to vessels.

The association has also been working with the Asian Shipowners’ Forum on a policy of zero tolerance for operational oil pollution and is urging the maritime industry to adopt three specific initiatives.

The first involves studying the amount and type of waste generated by a ship in the engineroom, together with its treatment and disposal, to develop the most effective and seafarer-friendly solution.

“It is our intention that the solution we develop is put together as best practice guidelines for new ships and adopted into regulation at the earliest possible time,” he said.

The association is also studying existing ships to develop guidelines that show how to operate equipment effectively and warn of the dire consequences that could be imposed for illegal operation.

Mr Bowring said the third idea is to develop thorough Marpol training for seafarers that would be an amendment to STCW in order to become a separate examination.

Tamar pollution prediction 'far too low'
Official environmental report 'pretends Central has a flat surface' with no tall buildings, say experts
20 November 2005
South China Morning Post

Official figures seriously underestimate the pollution levels people will face in Central once the new government offices are built at the Tamar site and the surrounding district developed, it has been claimed.

The Sunday Morning Post has learned that air pollution could be three times higher than predicted by the Environmental Protection Department's 2001 environmental impact assessment (EIA) report, due to miscalculations.

Annelise Connell, vice-chairwoman of Clear the Air, says pollution predictions on the Tamar site and the Central Reclamation Phase III were based on 1999 data plugged into a prediction model that assumes Central has no buildings.

"The entire air pollution assessment is useless," she said. "There is not a chance in the world that the real numbers are within objective. The CRP III and Tamar site project would not have been approved if the real figures had been used."

In the assessment, suspended particles (RSP) at the Central roadside station were not expected to exceed an average concentration of 80 micrograms per cubic metre and the Air Pollution Index was expected to remain below 100. In reality, the RSP figure has been as high as 257 micrograms and the API has reached 100 some 97 times.

The discrepancy may have to do with the fact that the department used air pollution figures taken at a station near SoHo instead of at the roadside station in Central. The station, on the upper level of the police station in High Street, is 18 metres above ground, while the roadside station at the junction of Chater Road and Des Voeux Road Central is 4.5 metres above ground.

"The air up there is obviously relatively cleaner," said Ms Connell, who is calling for the Tamar project to be postponed pending new assessments.

Meanwhile, air-quality-modelling expert Jimmy Fung Chi-hung says the government's pollution model "pretends Central is a flat surface" and ignores the fact that pollution gets trapped.

The University of Science and Technology associate professor said a "deep canyon" of pollution was created when buildings by the road were twice as high as the width of the road. "Pollution is three times higher than in places where air can flow freely. If you have doubts, just think of how bad the air is in Causeway Bay," he said.

"For a two- to three-lane road, a three-storey commercial building is high enough to create a deep canyon. Cars release exhaust very close to the ground. Central's canyon would be very deep."

He suggested the government produce another report using a newer model that considers the buildings. This would take about three months and cost $300,000.

However, the department is standing by its methods and findings. Asked by the Post for comment, a spokeswoman said the study had been conducted in line with EIA procedures and the public and the Advisory Council on the Environment had been consulted before the report was approved.

The Constitutional Affairs Bureau felt there was no need to delay the Tamar project, which a spokesman said would have "no significant impact on the air pollution in the Central Business District".

Business firms launch drive to cut air pollution

Frustrated by poor air quality in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, the local business community launched a Clean Air Charter on Clean Air Day Sunday.

Andrea Chiu
Hong Kong Standard
Monday, November 21, 2005

Frustrated by poor air quality in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta, the local business community launched a Clean Air Charter on Clean Air Day Sunday.

The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Hong Kong Business Coalition on the Environment initiated the charter which asks the business sector in Hong Kong and Guangdong province to support and implement practices to reduce air pollution.

The chamber's outgoing chief executive officer, Eden Woon, said the SAR's poor air quality is now threatening Hong Kong's attractiveness for investors. He could not provide statistics but said he knows anecdotally that Hong Kong's air pollution is a factor potential investors consider.

"Right now we're OK," Woon said. "But when people start comparing us with other places, we don't want this to be a handicap."

Earlier this month, Carrie Lam, the director general of Hong Kong's Economic and Trade Office in London, said British investors are already concerned.

"They might think they themselves might be able to tolerate the air pollution in Hong Kong if they had to move to the SAR for business. But they don't want their children to suffer," Lam said.

The charter has 178 signatories from a wide range of businesses and Woon said he hopes more companies will sign on. It asks companies to endorse and practice steps to improve air quality.

Measures could include promoting public transport for employees and working with customers and vendors to reduce emissions.

The charter also asks participants to publish figures on their energy consumption and air pollution emissions.

Woon said signatories will not be strictly monitored but if a company is found to be blatantly hazardous to the environment, it may be removed from the charter.

The initiative is a part of the chamber and coalition's Project Clean Air which supports better air quality via outreach programs, public campaigns and research.

In the first nine months of 2005, the air pollution index rose above 100 on 127 hours, down from 247 bad air hours in 2004 at road site monitoring stations, an Environmental Protection Department spokesman said.

Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao, who attended the ceremony, applauded the business sector for its initiative but urged everyone to be involved in protecting the environment.

"Everyone needs to do their part to reduce emissions," Liao said. "If you really need to drive, turn off your engine when idling."

SAR lags on electronic waste

Hong Kong lags behind the mainland and the rest of the world when it comes to electronic waste management, the environmental group Greenpeace said.

Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Hong Kong lags behind the mainland and the rest of the world when it comes to electronic waste management, the environmental group Greenpeace said.
"The government's current measures are definitely not effective," Greenpeace assistant campaigner Edward Chan said Monday. "We are only controlling part of the electronic waste."

His comments came on the same day the government announced an updated version of its accreditation system, ISO 14001, which encourages sound environmental management for small- and medium-sized enterprises in the electronics and construction sectors.

The new version differs from the 1996 version in "minor, textural changes," such as rewording to improve clarity, an Environmental Protection Department spokesman said.

In 2001, the mainland banned the export of all electronic waste whatever the reason, including recycling, under the Basel Convention - a treaty designed to reduce the movement of hazardous waste between countries. But Hong Kong has yet to take that step.

Currently, any importer or exporter of hazardous electronic waste - which may contain mercury, lead, nickel or other toxic heavy metals - only needs to obtain a permit from the Environmental Protection Department.

Similarly, workshops that dismantle hazardous electronic waste need only obtain a government-issued license.

According to Chan, Hong Kong's electronic waste is either dumped at waste sites dispersed throughout the New Territories - where it leaks lead and other toxic chemicals into the soil - or is shipped off to the mainland, where inefficient recycling of the waste creates large amounts of pollution.

Chan said the administration can solve the problem of electronic waste if it follows the example of the European Union which, in August, implemented a new measure requiring product manufacturers to be financially responsible for the recovery of the waste.

The EU has also announced that six specified hazardous substances - including lead, mercury and cadmium - will be banned in electronic products beginning July.

A spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Department said Monday that the administration began a study in March on the introduction of a product responsibility scheme similar to that introduced by the EU, but results have yet to be released.

As for the elimination of hazardous substances from electronic equipment, the department "will continue to monitor the trend of policy development in this aspect among the international community in order to consider the need for introducing similar regulations in Hong Kong."

Government statistics show there are about 90 electronic-waste workshops in the New Territories, some of which can store more than 100 tonnes of waste at any one time. A total of 18,433 tonnes of electronic waste was dumped into landfills last year, the department said. But electronic waste in the form of secondhand equipment is flooding in from countries such as the United States and Japan, Chan said.

'Renewable energy targets not in pact'
Power firms' new scheme of control shocks Greenpeace
22 November 2005
South China Morning Post

No targets on renewable energy will be incorporated into the new scheme of control agreement with power companies, a Greenpeace activist has claimed.

Quoting a source close to talks between the government and power companies, Gloria Chang Wan-ki said the targets would not be set despite several rounds of talks on the issue.

Instead, the government was considering a new mechanism on permitted return to encourage investment in renewable energy and boost environmental performance, said Ms Chang, the group's renewable energy campaigner.

The permitted return might be tied to the mode of fuel and generation facilities the power suppliers used, she said. The return on clean energy would be higher than that of polluting fuel like coal.

But Energy Advisory Committee chairman Otto Poon Lok-to said he believed the Economic Development and Labour Bureau and the companies would reach a deal on the targets eventually.

"It has all been agreed by the Council [for Sustainable Development]," said Mr Poon, a member of the council.

"It would just backfire if the bureau rejects setting targets as it earlier said it would."

Mr Poon said that after a series of city-wide consultations, there was a clear consensus that power companies should meet a renewable energy target of 1 to 2 per cent by 2012.

He said he also believed a new mechanism of permitted return based on environmental performance would make the regulatory scheme far too complicated to administer.

Greenpeace's claim came after unconfirmed reports that CLP Power and Hongkong Electric were likely to see their permitted rate of return slashed from 13.5 per cent to below 10 per cent in the scheme of control agreement review.

A consultation paper on the review is expected to be released early next year.

Ms Chang, who has just returned from an international conference on the wider application of clean energy on the mainland, said it would be disappointing if there was no target imposed.

"This is absolutely inadequate," she said. "The most crucial element of renewable energy development is a clear target and timetable. Even the mainland has a very aggressive plan but we have nothing.

"I really don't know what the government fears."

She reiterated that the government should consider linking the electricity grids of Hong Kong and Guangdong to facilitate renewable energy development, particularly wind power, in the province.

The activist said the city was seriously lagging behind the mainland, which will implement a new renewable energy law next year.

Clear targets will be laid down, while there will also be supporting policies and systems to spur clean energy development.

No comment could be obtained from the Economic Development and Labour Bureau yesterday.

Pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles required to install emission reduction devices
Friday, November 25, 2005
Government Press Release

The Government announced today (November 25) the gazettal of the Air Pollution Control (Emission Reduction Devices for Vehicles) Amendment Regulation 2005.

"Subject to approval by the Legislative Council, the Amendment Regulation will require all pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles, except long idling vehicles, to install approved emission reduction devices as from April 1, 2006, to reduce their emissions of air pollutants," a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department said.

"Vehicle owners failing to install and maintain the approved devices in good working conditions will be liable to cancellation or non-renewal of their vehicle licences," the spokesman said.

"Diesel vehicles are a major source of roadside air pollution in Hong Kong. A pre-Euro vehicle emits up to seven times more particulates than a vehicle meeting the prevailing Euro III standards."

"The emission reduction device required can reduce about 30% of the particulates emissions and about 50% of the hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide emissions from a pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicle." he said.

Since 2003, pre-Euro diesel light vehicles have already been required by law to be installed with similar approved emission reduction devices.

In 2004, the Government completed a voluntary programme to assist owners of pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles to install emission reduction devices in their vehicles. About 97% of such vehicles took part in the installation programme.

Pre-Euro diesel heavy vehicles include large light buses, good vehicles and buses over four tonnes first-registered before April 1, 1995. Long idling vehicles have a body type of the following:

i) aerial platform,
ii) concrete mixer,
iii) gully emptier,
iv) lorry crane,
v) mobile crane,
vi) mobile concrete pump, or
vii) pressure tanker.

The Government is now implementing a retrofitting programme to assist owners of long idling diesel heavy vehicles to install emission reduction devices. The programme will be completed by the end of this year. The Government plans to propose legislative amendment next year to extend the mandatory requirement to these vehicles.

New scheme to reduce smog-inducing emissions

The government plans to push a new scheme to limit the smog-inducing emissions of about 60 types of consumer products - which include paint, insect repellent, air freshener and hairspray - despite worries that the regulations might force some overseas manufacturers to cease exporting to Hong Kong.

Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, December 01, 2005

The government plans to push a new scheme to limit the smog-inducing emissions of about 60 types of consumer products - which include paint, insect repellent, air freshener and hairspray - despite worries that the regulations might force some overseas manufacturers to cease exporting to Hong Kong.

The proposed law gradually phases out between 2007 and 2010 the sales of domestic or imported products that exceed the limit set by the strict Californian Air Resources Board on volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, a major air pollutant linked to smog formation.

"If more countries ban high-VOC content products, then manufacturers will have to change," said Lam Kin- che, chairman of the Environmental Protection Department's Advisory Council on the Environment.

The original version of the proposal, introduced last year, merely required that the products be registered with the the EPD and bear labels indicating the VOC level with a warning message that it causes air pollution.

Under the new scheme, importers or local manufacturers who are found guilty of selling products exceeding the specified levels face a maximum penalty of HK$200,000 and six months' imprisonment.

Government figures indicate that Hong Kong's air was polluted with 54,400 tonnes of VOCs in 1997. The government hopes the new law will help reduce VOC emissions by 55 percent by 2010.

Monitoring system has poor debut

Filthy air hung over several areas in Guangdong and Hong Kong, the new pollution index revealed Wednesday.

Mimi Lau
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, December 01, 2005

Filthy air hung over several areas in Guangdong and Hong Kong, the new pollution index revealed Wednesday.

The government's plan to give residents daily updates on air quality got off to a bad start when a technical hitch at the Environment Protection Department delayed the first bulletin by more than 30 minutes.

When the information was finally released, it showed that air quality in two of the three Hong Kong areas monitored was below acceptable standards while that in several areas in Guangdong had almost reached maximum pollution levels.

Under a cross-border pact, air pollution will be monitored on a daily basis from 13 stations across the Pearl River Delta and three in Hong Kong.

Data collected from these stations at 2pm will be analyzed and details published on the Environmental Department's Web site at 4pm daily.

The stations in Guangdong met the deadline but the Hong Kong department, with its more sophisticated equipment, was delayed by what a spokesman called technical problems.

Information finally released showed readings of 2.3 in both Tsuen Wan and Tung Chung and 2.0 in Tap Mun, the first two being labelled grade three which means "concentrations of individual pollutants may approach or exceed the air quality standards." The readings for the 13 stations Guangdong ranged from 1.3 (grade 2) in Zhuhai to 3.3 (grade 4) in Guangzhou City with grade 5 being the maximum.

Air quality was particularly poor in border areas such as Zhongshan, Foshan, Guangzhou and Dongguan.

Friends of the Earth environmental affairs manager Chu Hon-keung said the idea to publish a daily index was welcomed but the grade three reading for Hong Kong was a poor start to the new system.

"However, the figures do show that China has a bigger pollution problem than Hong Kong and this will put pressure on the authorities there to improve the air quality." Chu said.

Friends of the Earth director Mei Ng said the regional index was an important milestone in Hong Kong's effort to tackle cross boarder air pollution.

However, she warned that Hong Kong should not develop a false sense of security by saying the main pollution source comes from the other side of the border and hence the SAR government can do the minimum.

Ng also demanded a break down on exact pollution concentration, including the presence of life threatening micro particulars such as PM 2.5.

"I hope the index will go beyond numbers," Ng said. "The government should seek to reduce emission sooner than 2010. It can use the figures as a good reference for future transport and road planning where mass transportation should be encouraged and renewable energy alternatives should be considered." Greenpeace campaigner Chow Sze-chung said public monitoring is a key factor for the regional air pollution index system to work.

"Currently, the information provided by the air quality monitoring system is not very useful to residents of the Pearl River Delta Area." Chow said.

PM 2.5s are currently not included in Hong Kong or regional air pollution monitoring index systems. These only include PM 10 which are micro particulars floating in the air with a diameter not larger than 10 micrometers.

This can be dust which is not a threat to the human body.

Chow said the government should measure PM 2.5 which includes micro particulars directly caused by human pollution, a more accurate indicator to reflect air quality.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) Wednesday announced the results of a survey of 1,025 residents in late November concerning air pollution.

According to the survey, 85 percent of those interviewed thought Hong Kong's air quality was "bad" or "very bad."

December 8, 2005
Government Press Release
Measures proposed to reduce waste

Measures to reduce the amount of municipal solid waste and increase its recovery rate have been proposed. These include introducing charges for solid waste and mandatory producer responsibility schemes.

The plan, known as "A Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005-2014)", will be discussed in the Legislative Council next week and proposes a comprehensive strategy for the management of municipal solid waste in Hong Kong for next 10 years.

Secretary for the Environment, Transport & Works Dr Sarah Liao said projections predict that landfill capacity will be exhausted in the next six to 10 years.

Using landfills as the only means of disposal of solid waste is not sustainable, she said, adding something has to be done now to extend their life expectancy.

Dr Liao said the scheme aims at reducing and recycling waste so unwanted things will become resources instead.

Targets, initiatives

Targets are:
* to reduce the amount of municipal solid waste by 1% per annum up to 2014;
* to increase the overall recovery rate to 45% by 2009 and 50% by 2014; and,
* to reduce total waste disposed of in landfills to less than 25% by 2014.

Major initiatives proposed are to:
* expedite the roll-out of territory-wide waste recovery programmes to increase the amount of local recyclables;
* introduce mandatory producer responsibility schemes through new legislation upon completion of detailed studies on product-specific measures;
* examine ways of introducing charging for municipal solid waste;
* continue to encourage waste recycling;
* continue to develop the EcoPark exclusively for the environmental industry; and,
* get all Government departments to adopt a green procurement policy as far as practicable.

Act on pollution, demands Legco

The Legislative Council has urged the government to formulate a comprehensive and effective conservation policy amid concerns of over-consumption of electricity, worsening air quality and serious energy waste.

Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, December 15, 2005

The Legislative Council has urged the government to formulate a comprehensive and effective conservation policy amid concerns of over-consumption of electricity, worsening air quality and serious energy waste.
Choy So-yuk of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB), who moved the motion, Wednesday criticized the government department handling the energy-saving issue as "powerless."

Choy argued that the SAR's energy- saving target, a 1.5 percent annual reduction of total consumption raised by Chief Executive Donald Tsang in his policy address, is "incredibly low" compared with the mainland's 20 percent reduction target.

Reduced electricity consumption leads to reduced pollutant emissions, Choy said. Air pollution had undermined the competitiveness of Hong Kong. Saving energy was a short-term solution.

In response, Secretary for Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao outlined the government's energy- saving measures, saying some 230 government energy audits are carried out on major buildings to identify and implement reductions.

Occupancy sensors and timer switches had been installed in some offices to automatically switch off lighting and air-conditioning when not in use, she said.

"Furthermore, departments have also been implementing energy- conserving housekeeping measures such as switching off lights and computers when not in use, maintaining air temperature at 25.5 degrees Celsius, switching off some lifts during off-peak hours."

However, Article 45 Concern Group lawmaker Audrey Eu said residential energy consumption has grown 40 percent and commercial use by 50 percent between 1993 and 2003 against population growth of only 15 percent.

"The two power companies in Hong Kong tend to generate more electricity in order to earn more profit. The tariff is relatively cheap which might lead to wastage." Eu said.

She suggested establishing an energy consumption computer database on consumer products to give the public access to information about energy efficiency before they decide to buy.

The motion, which passed, also included actively promoting green roof projects, promoting the provision of economic incentives by the two power companies as well as the introduction of an effective mechanism, including the provision of economic incentives for commercial properties to encourage tenants to reduce electricity consumption.

Regional plan urged to cut damage to environment

Hong Kong needs to work with the Asia-Pacific region to reduce the damaging effects of humans on the environment, the WWF said.

Doug Crets
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, December 20, 2005

Hong Kong needs to work with the Asia-Pacific region to reduce the damaging effects of humans on the environment, the WWF said.

The call for action Monday by the local chapter of the international green group came as it released a damning report on how the rapid development in the region has made it the most threatening place to the world's ecosystem.

This is not just an issue about plants and animals, the report said.

"Many of the ... people living in low- and middle- income countries ... have been facing an involuntarily decline in their quality of life," the study warns.

The WWF's Living Planet Index, which tracks the world's natural forest cover and populations of freshwater and marine species globally, has fallen by 40 percent in the past 30 years.

At the same time, as the human population grew by 65 percent, the global "Ecological Footprint," which gauges man's influence on the world's ecology, grew by 70 percent.

The problem is especially bad in the mainland, which has grown faster than any other country in the region, nearly doubling its population in the past 40 years, while its economy has boomed. To counteract the effects of such growth, the WWF study encourages businesses, scientists and governments to invest in projects that conserve rivers, streams and large bodies of water.

It also recommends "challenging the industrial countries" to help make this happen.

A senior official with WWF said that Hong Kong people and policymakers should focus on energy conservation.

"We should be following the principle of sustainable development," said WWF's senior conservation officer, Allan Leung, who presented the report in Hong Kong.

The report also recommends launching initiatives to alter the way governments undertake "procurement, regulation and cooperation, for example, by twinning sustainable cities between North and South that support a two-way flow of ideas and innovations."

The North-South divide is the perception, backed by data, that northern industrial countries gain from technological infrastructure and solid planning mechanisms while agrarian southern countries cannot compete.

December 19, 2005
Government Press Release
Light bus incentive scheme ends on Dec 31

The Light Buses Using Cleaner Fuel Incentive Scheme, which aims to improve air quality by encouraging owners to replace diesel light buses with LPG or electric ones, will end on December 31, the Transport Department says.

Under the scheme, eligible diesel public light bus owners who replace their diesel vehicles with LPG or electric ones can apply for a one-off grant of $60,000 or $80,000. Eligible diesel private light bus owners who replace their diesel vehicles with LPG ones can apply for first registration tax remission.

To be eligible for the one-off grant, diesel public light bus owners must scrap and de-register by December 31 their diesel vehicles before they reach 10 years of age and replace them with LPG or electric public light buses within one month from the date of de-registration.

They must also submit the applications for the one-off grant to the department by December 31 or within one month from the date of de-registration of their diesel public light buses, whichever date is later.

To be eligible for the first registration tax remission, diesel private light bus owners must scrap and de-register by December 31 their diesel vehicles before they reach 10 years of age and replace them with LPG ones within one month from the date of de-registration.

They must also submit the applications for the first registration tax remission to the department when applying for registration of the replacement LPG private light buses.

Programme helps boost air quality

The incentive scheme is part of the Government's comprehensive programme since 1999 to cut the particulate and nitrogen oxides emissions by 80% and 30% from motor vehicles to improve air quality.

The programme is progressing well, with suspended particulates and nitrogen oxides emitted by motor vehicles in the urban areas lowered 79% and 41% in September.

Nowadays, virtually all taxis use LPG as fuel. Smoky vehicles have also been reduced by about 80%.

Hidden dangers in the air

Hong Kong's filthy air might be harboring more unseen dangers than previously thought after a US study found a link between urban air pollution and heart disease.

Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, December 22, 2005

Hong Kong's filthy air might be harboring more unseen dangers than previously thought after a US study found a link between urban air pollution and heart disease.

According to the study published this week, researchers at New York University School of Medicine said they found "compelling evidence" that long-term exposure to air pollution can be "particularly damaging," based on tests on mice exposed to air containing pollutants comparable with levels in New York City.

The study, published in the latest edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that exposure to air pollution combined with a high-fat diet is particularly dangerous.

"We established a causal link between air pollution and atherosclerosis," Lung-chi Chen, associate professor of environmental medicine at the school and a member of the research team, was quoted by Agence France- Presse as saying.

Atherosclerosis involves the hardening, narrowing and clogging of arteries from the buildup of plaque.

For six months, Chen and his team tested the impact of New York City- levels of pollution and high fat diets on a group of mice that were genetically prone to heart disease, according to the AFP report. A comparison of the pollution-exposed mice to a control group that breathed filtered air showed a clear difference in their cardiovascular health, the study said.

The results revealed "a clear cause- and-effect relationship" between air pollution and atherosclerosis.

Wong Chit-ming, associate professor of community medicine at Hong Kong University, said the implication of this would be great as both air pollution and a high-fat diet have been public health issues in Hong Kong, with both related to cardiovascular disease.

He said that if the results of the tests on mice were applied to humans it would mean that people already at risk of heart disease from consuming a high- fat diet would be exposed to extra risk as a result of pollution in the air.

However, he stressed there is no evidence yet to show the results on mice apply to humans, "although biologically it's possible."

Hong Kong's poor air quality has alarmed both the medical and business sectors. In the first nine months of this year, the air pollution index rose above 100, the level at which people with heart or respiratory ailments may feel mild aggravation to their condition, for 127 hours, compared with 247 bad air-hours for all of 2004 at roadside monitoring stations, an Environmental Protection Department spokesman said.

In late October, the Hong Kong Medical Association said studies showed air pollution can exacerbate asthma, impair lung functions and raise the risk of cardio-respiratory death by 2-3 percent for every increase of 10 micrograms per cubic meter of pollutants.

The business community also launched a Clean Air Charter on Clean Air Day, November 20, to address air quality in Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta. General Chamber of Commerce outgoing chief executive Eden Woon warns the state of the air is threatening Hong Kong's attractiveness for investors.

LP green move queried

What electricity giant CLP Power is touting as its latest "eco-friendly project" - the planting of about 30 bamboo palms on the roof of its new Tseung Kwan O substation - was actually just part of an "agreement" with star customer MTR Corp not to degrade the view of its new 33-hectare housing development, a CLP architect has revealed.

Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, December 28, 2005

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/newsimage/20051228/CLP.jpg

What electricity giant CLP Power is touting as its latest "eco-friendly project" - the planting of about 30 bamboo palms on the roof of its new Tseung Kwan O substation - was actually just part of an "agreement" with star customer MTR Corp not to degrade the view of its new 33-hectare housing development, a CLP architect has revealed.

According to the source, the MTRC was concerned that prospective tenants for its Dreamcity residential development - a 50-tower, 21,500-unit project directly adjacent to the substation - might be turned off by its utilitarian aesthetics.

During discussions between the two companies, the MTRC specified that it wanted the new substation to have "some greenery effect," the source said, and CLP subsequently agreed in order to maintain "a harmonious relationship with one of our customers."

The trees, which belong to a particularly resilient species, will also help reduce the amount of exhaust heat produced by the substation, which ramps down high-voltage electricity from the power plant to a level appropriate for use by consumers, according to the source. The MTRC had also stipulated that the facade of the substation should have "color," and both sides eventually agreed upon pink walls, the architect said.

A MTRC spokesman confirmed that, while it did provide CLP with some "objectives and suggestions" regarding the new substation, it was only part of a procedural consultation among stakeholders in the area.

He also said that both sides had environmentally-friendly aims and "shared the same goal of making the surrounding areas a beautiful place."

Greenpeace campaigner Gloria Chang said that, while using solar energy and planting trees are steps in the right direction, she suspected the project was "profit-driven."

She said that if CLP wanted to make a "real difference" in the environment, it should incorporate renewable energy, facilities and machinery at every substation and customer-service center.

"Planting a couple of trees is trivial ... they need to do something more impressive than just a few trees," she said.

Legislative Council environmental affairs panel chairwoman Choy So-yuk agreed, saying that while she generally welcomed initiatives, this one came under the radar.

"Any environmentally-friendly initiatives, whether big or small, will be welcome," she said, "but in this case, planting 30 trees - considering the size of CLP - is nothing."

Choy said she suspected CLP decided to plant the rooftop trees in a partial effort to compensate for cutting down trees in the surrounding area.

At a press conference last week, CLP director of power systems Paul Poon admitted that, in order to clear the area for construction of the substation, the company had consulted experts from Hawaii to learn how to cut down trees "in a way such that they are not dead, but don't grow back as quickly," thus eliminating possible hazards with power lines.

The substation showcases CLP's green initiative, he said, because it is "Hong Kong's first substation to feature a solar-powered irrigation system," which is essentially a sprinkler system installed to water the rooftop trees once a day. At the briefing, the press was shown 32 somewhat withering trees.

When asked why the trees appeared to be dying, the source speculated: "Maybe it's because of the construction going on next door."

In January, a Cheung Kong subsidiary won the rights to the estimated HK$5 billion Dreamcity first-phase development.

Tightened vehicle emission standards to take effect
Friday, December 30, 2005
Government Press Release

Starting from January 1, 2006, all newly registered light motor vehicles are required to comply with the Euro IV emission standards while emission standards for diesel private cars will be tightened to the most stringent Californian standards.

A spokesman of the Environmental Protection Department said today (December 30) that the Air Pollution Control (Vehicle Design Standards) (Emission) (Amendment) Regulation 2005 would take effect from January 1, 2006.

Under the Amendment Regulation, newly registered motor vehicles having a design weight up to 2.5 tonnes and newly registered diesel private cars are required to comply with the tightened emission requirements.

"The tightened standards will help reduce emissions from motor vehicles further. A Euro IV light duty vehicle emits about 50% fewer pollutants than a Euro III one," the spokesman added.

The Amendment Regulation also requires those weighing from 2.5 to 3.5 tonnes to comply with the Euro IV standards from January 1, 2007, when the European Union will introduce the standards.

To improve air quality, the Government has been implementing a comprehensive programme since 1999 to reduce emissions from motor vehicles. Under the programme, it is the Government's plan to continue tightening vehicle fuel and emission standards in tandem with the European Union as well as to introduce the most stringent available emission standards for private diesel cars.

"The comprehensive programme is in good progress," the spokesman said, adding that the suspended particulates and nitrogen oxides emitted by motor vehicles in the urban areas had been reduced by 79% and 41% respectively as of September.

"Nowadays, virtually all taxis use LPG as fuel. Over 60,000 pre-Euro diesel vehicles have been retrofitted with emission reduction devices. Smoky vehicles have also been reduced by about 80%, he added.

"We also plan to tighten the emission standards for vehicles over 3.5 tonnes from October 1, 2006. The legislation drafting work is in progress and will be submitted to the Legislative Council for approval when ready."

Power shake-up plans leave pollution doubts

The government has proposed radically changing its relationship with the power companies to encourage steep tariff cuts and cleaner emissions, but critics worry this will not do enough to reduce pollution.

Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Saturday, December 31, 2005

The government has proposed radically changing its relationship with the power companies to encourage steep tariff cuts and cleaner emissions, but critics worry this will not do enough to reduce pollution.

In a consultation paper released Friday on a new scheme of control with the two power companies, the government recommended decreasing their permitted rate of return, broadening the tariff formula, and shortening by a third the duration of the next deal to 10 years when it comes into effect in 2008.

Announcing the consultation, Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip said the government's proposed measures aim to ensure "energy supplies at a reasonable price, and to minimize the environmental impact caused by its production and use."

The power companies' permitted rate of return on investment and spending, which is now at least 13.5 percent a year, may be slashed to as low as 7 percent.

"This is welcome news," said Richard Tsoi, spokesman of the Coalition to Monitor Public Transport and Utilities.

The report also suggested an annual audit of the power companies' financial and technical performances and a yearly tariff review. Currently, the utilities' investments are based on demand forecasts generated separately by the government and independent analysts, which critics claim lack transparency and lead to unnecessary spending by the utilities and ultimately higher charges for consumers.

To guard against overinvestment, the government also proposed deducting from the rate base "all capital expenditure on machinery and equipment of a generation facility found to be excessive."

The move responds to "shortcomings" in the current Scheme of Control agreement signed in 1993, which, the report says, suffers from a "high" permitted rate of return and that "encourages overinvestment."

While these suggestions are in accord with calls from the public for a more equitable fare structure, the power companies - Li Ka-shing-controlled Hongkong Electric and Kadoorie family-owned CLP Power - complain that this lower rate of return will hurt their ability to provide electricity in the long term. .

Tso Kai-sum, managing director of Hongkong Electric, which feeds electricity to Hong Kong and Lamma islands, said the move would "dampen investment incentives and jeopardize the future development of electricity."

Betty Yuen, managing director of CLP Power, which covers the rest of the territory, warned that "if returns are not set at appropriate levels, the public will end up bearing the risks of insufficient investment - a costly social and economic consequence which will take years to correct."

The announcement came after the stock market closed Friday, but the proposals were already widely known.

CLP Power dropped 0.99 percent to HK$44.95, and Hongkong Electric fell 0.52 percent, to HK$38.45 per share.

The government wants to have the final say on tariff adjustment and electrical generation development plans to ensure that they are "cost-justified, reasonable and affordable to consume," Ip said.

Asked if the government expects this to push the two power companies into reducing their tariffs drastically in the future, Ip said, "Yes, of course ... that's the objective of the exercise.

"We understand the power companies' concern about the rate of return, but we also need to protect the interest of the public."

But while the government hailed this as a breakthrough in environmental concern, the proposals only included some vague measures to promote energy efficiency and conservation.

Green groups contend that the regulations in the consultation paper are "fragmented" and don't effectively address the environmental concerns.

Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of Friends of the Earth Hong Kong, said proposals lacked "solid plans for renewable application, management of energy consumption, diversification of energy sources and the consideration of environmental performance when deciding the rate of return."

Greenpeace's renewable energy campaigner Gloria Cheng said the government should introduce firm penalties "to force them to comply to a set environmental standard."

The proposals also lacked a timetable for introducing competition into the electricity market. Consultations are expected to last for three months.

Why no pollution curbs, greens ask
They want the government to get tough on power firms and impose a timetable for investment in renewable energy
31 December 2005
South China Morning Post

Green groups say Hong Kong's choking air pollution has been ignored in the government's proposals for power-sector reform and that a golden opportunity to increase renewable energy sources and reduce toxic emissions will be lost unless big changes are made.

Climate and energy campaigners are bewildered that the government's low renewables target, which lags behind those of the mainland and the rest of the world, will not be increased. They will seek the support of business and community leaders to demand change.

They also claim there is no substance to the proposals and want the government to get tough and impose on the power companies a clear and legally binding timetable for investing in renewable energy.

The government has set a target of having between 1 per cent and 2 per cent of energy generated from renewable sources by 2012. The mainland has declared that 15 per cent of energy must come from clean sources such as wind, water and solar power by 2020. A law which comes into effect tomorrow on the mainland sets tariffs favouring renewable energy.

Gloria Chang Wan-ki, Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner for China, said the 1 to 2 per cent target was meaningless, and described the other environmental measures as "ambiguous and unenforceable".

"The crucial issue here is that the government will not push our power firms into becoming responsible corporate citizens investing in renewable energy," she said.

Ms Chang said the paper set out no strategy or clear plan as to how the government intended to improve the quality of the air, reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and deal with climate change.

Delaying any firmer action until 2012 was a "disaster for our environment and society" at a time when the rest of the world was desperately trying to find a way of generating sustainable power.

"Consumers who live here and deal with the pollution every day want to be able to choose clean, sustainable energy," she said.

Friends of the Earth assistant director Edwin Lau Che-feng said it was time to consider ambitious measures such as large wind farms along the coast of Guangdong. The area had the perfect conditions for generating wind power, and Hong Kong's experience in taking nuclear power from the mainland had shown that transferring energy was economically viable.

Mr Lau said the rates of return which controlled the profitability of power companies needed to be tied to their environmental performance.

"The issue of air quality is now affecting the lives of people in Hong Kong and the government needs to act now to do something to change it," he said.

Struggling to achieve a clearer picture on pollution
Cloaked in bad air, Hong Kong continued to choke and fume in 2005.
Ng Kang-chung assesses the state of the regional environment
30 December 2005
South China Morning Post

Headlines on Hong Kong's worsening air pollution, and ways to fight it, came thick and fast over the past 12 months. For most of the year, the city's 6.9 million residents were shrouded in bad air and a yellow haze that rendered many of the skyscrapers flanking Victoria Harbour barely visible. Mixed with vehicle exhaust emissions, it drove air pollution to record levels.

Readings taken at street-level monitoring stations in Causeway Bay and Central on September 12 reached new highs of 164 and 158 respectively, on a scale where readings over 100 are considered "very high", and people suffering respiratory problems are advised to stay indoors.

A pollution report released in April by brokerage house CLSA said hospital admissions, visits to doctors and productivity losses related to bad air cost Hong Kong about $702 million a year.

And the dirty-air problem has started to tarnish the city's image. Officiating guests at the opening of Hong Kong Disneyland on September 12, including Vice-President Zeng Qinghong , found themselves swathed in thick smog, with visibility in urban areas cut to barely 2km, while opera legend Luciano Pavarotti complained about heavy pollution during a concert in the city last month.

Former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, who stepped down in March citing poor health, pledged in 2000 to make the air in Hong Kong as clean as that in New York and London by 2005 as part of his cleanup strategy to turn Hong Kong into what he called a world-class city.

But the CLSA report found it was still far behind other major cities in Asia in terms of air quality. Air in Singapore was by far the cleanest, and Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei enjoyed better air than Hong Kong, the report said.

To combat exhaust emissions, Hong Kong was the first Asian city to introduce ultra-low-sulfur diesel for vehicles five years ago and officials pushed owners of high-emission diesel taxis to use the relatively clean fuel of liquefied petroleum gas. Now nearly all cabs run on LPG.

These efforts seemed to pay off, the Environmental Protection Department said.

Its latest figures show emissions of major pollutants - nitrogen oxides, respiratory suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds - have dropped by up to 34 per cent since the handover. The number of smoky vehicles has also dropped, by 80 per cent, since then.

However, such benefits seem to have been overshadowed by worsening pollution from across the border.

It is no secret that pollution from factories in Shenzhen and other parts of the Pearl River Delta, a major engine of the mainland's economic growth, has inflicted considerable harm on Hong Kong.

In a document to legislators, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao Sau-tung said: "Air pollutants originating from the [Pearl River Delta] covering Shenzhen {hellip} are easily carried by a northerly or northwesterly wind to the territory.

"As the northwestern part of Hong Kong, including Yuen Long and Tung Chung, is to the downwind side of the [Pearl River Delta], it is more susceptible to the influence of regional air pollution than other areas."

Official data showed Yuen Long and Tung Chung recorded air pollution index levels reading "very high", or more than 100, for a total of 141 hours for the first 11 months of the year. This compared with 24 hours for the island of Tap Mun off Sai Kung.

Talks on closer cross-border co-operation have dragged on for years but have tended to produce more hot air than action.

But a package was finally concluded after a tour of Guangdong by Premier Wen Jiabao in September when he said Shenzhen had an "unshirkable mission" to support Hong Kong, and urged better co-ordination between the two cities in areas including environmental protection.

In November, Hong Kong and Guangdong introduced a new air quality monitoring network to provide an index of pollution in the Pearl River Delta.

The index is based on the readings of 16 monitoring stations - three of which are in Hong Kong - and Chinese national air quality standards. Five grades of air quality were drawn up to show the state of air across the region.

But critics said the system was too vague to be of use. The index is not released until 24 hours after the daily readings have been collected.

There are no forecasts or warnings to the public of extreme pollution levels or disclosure of the concentration levels of specific pollutants, which will remain confidential.

Green Power chief executive Man Chi-sum said in one interview: "It is a complete waste of state-of-the-air monitoring hardware." Other environmentalists also cast doubt on the network's credibility if there was no real-time data report.

But Ms Liao told a recent Legislative Council meeting that the public would not understand the details even if they were disclosed.

After being pushed by Beijing, Guangdong also agreed to reduce pollutants to levels that are below those recorded in 1997. To reach the target by 2010, the provincial government plans to upgrade 16 coal-fired power plants. Five have been completed.

Four large natural gas plants are being built and are expected to be commissioned in phases from next year. Natural gas pipelines are also being constructed to supply large cities in the Pearl River Delta.

Former lawmaker Christine Loh Kung-wai, a member of the Commission on Strategic Development's committee on social development and quality of life, says the crux of the region-wide pollution problem lies with China's energy shortage.

"Many factories and households buy power generators and most of these power generators use cheap and dirty fuel," she said, urging the Hong Kong government to adopt a new approach in tackling the issue.

"The Hong Kong government needs to discuss [the cross-border pollution issue] with Guangdong. It is out of our jurisdiction, but that does not mean we can do nothing.

"We have had discussions with Guangdong on many development projects. But [on cross-border air pollution], it seems [our officials] have never considered they could have this kind of discussion."

Ms Loh also attributed the pollution problem to price controls on fuel imposed by the mainland, which keeps oil cheap at the expense of the oil companies' revenues.

On Wednesday, the Sinopec Group announced it had received $10 billion yuan in compensation from the central government for losses stemming from price caps on refined oil products.

Ms Loh also called for the disclosure of more information on the regional air quality index launched in November.

Tackling Hong Kong's air pollution also requires the local power companies - Hongkong Electric and CLP Power - to cut emissions.

The emission levels of sulfur dioxide, which comes mainly from power plants, has increased by 41 per cent, from 64,500 tonnes in 1997 to 90,900 in 2003, a government document tabled in the Legislative Council in September this year showed.

CLP Power managing director Betty Yuen So Siu-mai told a regional conference in September that CLP had a policy of maintaining its fuel mix in an equal proportions, with one-third each of coal, gas, and nuclear sources. But its coal use rose to about 40 per cent last year because of dwindling gas supplies from Hainan Island.

To put pressure on the power companies, the government is imposing emission caps on their power stations upon renewal of licences.

Elsewhere, the imminent exhaustion of Hong Kong's landfills is a concern. The city generated 15,480 tonnes of solid waste, excluding construction waste, a day last year, or 2.24kg per person.

Following practices in Taiwan and Japan, the government proposed this month that households be required to dispose of their rubbish in prepaid plastic bags. Prices will reflect the cost of treating their contents.

About 33 million plastic bags are dumped in Hong Kong landfills every day. That's nearly five per person.

Under the government's waste management strategy, legislation on charging will be introduced in 2007, aimed at raising the city's waste recovery rate from 40 per cent to 50 per cent and limiting waste dumped in landfills to no more than 25 per cent of the city's total by 2014.

A "product eco-responsibility" law due to be introduced next year will call for computers and tyres to be recycled, and for excessive packaging to be banned.

Taipei's experience in waste-charging since 2000 has resulted in a 53 per cent drop in volume and has raised the recycling rate in the Taiwanese capital from 7.33 per cent in 2001 to 36 per cent.

The government will encourage the development of a recycling industry by building an eco-park in Tuen Mun and providing other suitable sites for the operation of such parks.

Environmental officials may use part of country park as rubbish dump
10 January 2006
South China Morning Post

Environmental officials are considering turning part of the Clear Water Bay Country Park in Sai Kung into a landfill site.

The Environmental Protection Department wants to extend the Tseung Kwan O landfill site to cope with the city's growing rubbish problem. One option to expand the landfill involves slicing off 5.1 hectares of land in the country park.

A consultancy study commissioned by the department says the plan would have an impact on some rare and protected butterflies and birds.

But it says the ecological impact on the country park would be small.

The plan is now being examined by the Country and Marine Parks Board. Green activists called the plan ridiculous and said its approval would open a floodgate.

The Tseung Kwan O landfill currently receives an average of 8,100 tonnes of waste every day and it is the only landfill in Hong Kong designed to accept chemical waste.

The government estimates that all three landfills in Hong Kong will be exhausted in the next five to nine years. The Tseung Kwan O landfill will be used up by 2011.

The other two landfills, in Ta Kwu Ling and Tuen Mun, will also be expanded.

The consultancy report says the extension in the Tseung Kwan O landfill could be built much higher if it takes up the slope in the Clear Water Bay Country Park. But there are two other options which would not encroach on the park.

Choy So-yuk, chairwoman of the Legislative Council environmental affairs panel, said yesterday she would call a special meeting to investigate the issue.

"Country parks are supposed to be sacred and untouchable. The department seems to be treating it as its private land," she said.

"The EPD should protect the environment, not pollute it."

An Environmental Protection Department spokeswoman said the landfill extension was an immediate solution to the waste problem.

Hong Kong's limited land area has meant innovation is the key to dealing with...
10 January 2006
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong's limited land area has meant innovation is the key to dealing with the rubbish produced by its growing, increasingly affluent, population. Unfortunately, the latest plan - to extend the Tseung Kwan O landfill into the adjoining Clear Water Bay Country Park - smacks of regression rather than innovation.

There is no doubt the Environmental Protection Department has an uphill battle to ensure the rubbish we produce is disposed of efficiently and safely. For the past two decades, the amount has been increasing by 3 per cent a year due to a growing population and consumerism.

We each, on average, throw away 1.1kg of rubbish every day and thousands more tonnes are dumped from construction sites at the three remaining landfills designated for solid-waste disposal. The level is increasing so rapidly that unless solutions can be found, the landfills will be full within the next decade and Hong Kong will have a crisis on its hands. Identifying new landfill sites is the best approach, the EPD believes, at least in the short-term. And a consultancy study recommends enlarging the Tseung Kwan O tip by using adjacent country park land. The Country and Marine Parks Board is considering the proposal, which would encroach on up to 5.1 hectares of the habitat of rare and protected butterflies and birds. It is not the first time this has happened at the Sai Kung park. About 18 hectares were designated as landfill in the 1990s.

All cities in the world face the problem of what to do with their mountains of waste. Some, like Hong Kong, do not have much land, but they have opted for environmentally friendly approaches rather than ones guaranteed to damage precious natural resources.

Key among these are recycling, which has been adopted with great success in northern Europe. Germany, which also has limited land, recycles 80 per cent of household rubbish through a system in which companies producing goods pay.

Hong Kong embarked on a recycling programme in 2001 and further reforms are in the pipeline. But the idea has not yet caught on.

Paper, bottles and glass are sorted, although environmental groups claim that the bulk ultimately ends up in landfill and only a small fraction is recycled. Cans are not included in the scheme. Similarly, although a user-pays system has been implemented for building contractors to reduce construction waste, the percentage ending up in landfills is still a high 38 per cent. Concrete and metal waste is still not being effectively recycled.

Landfills are a temporary solution to our waste problems. Another suggested option, incinerators, is difficult to accept when air pollution levels are worsening. Recycling is the only sustainable solution and the government must redouble efforts to educate people of its benefits and improve collecting and sorting methods.

LCQ10: Land filling activities undertaken on agricultural land
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Lam Wai-keung and a written reply by the Secretary for Housing, Planning and Lands, Mr Michael Suen, in the Legislative Council today (January 11):

Question:

In February 2005, the Town Planning Board (TPB) unilaterally amended, without first consulting the owners of agricultural land in the New Territories, the "Notes" for agricultural land in the Master Schedule of Notes to Statutory Plans so as to control land filling activities undertaken on agricultural land. Then, in April of the same year, the TPB announced by notice in the Gazette amendments to 25 draft/approved Outline Zoning Plans, which included the above revision to the Notes. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council of:

(a) the number of complaints received in the past 10 years by the authorities about land filling activities undertaken on agricultural land, the number of pieces of land involved and their sizes;

(b) the number of cases in which works undertaken in the past 10 years by the Government for the purpose of developing new towns, constructing roads and river training in the New Territories had turned land in the vicinity into low-lying land, as well as the area of the land involved;

(c) the examples of cases showing that land filling activities undertaken by owners of agricultural land have negative impacts on the economy and livelihood of the local community; and

(d) how the authorities arrived at the 1.2 metres upper limit on the thickness of soil laid in land filling activities requiring no planning permission, and whether the authorities have consulted owners of low-lying land; if so, please provide the relevant papers?

Reply:

Madam President,

My reply to the four-part question is as follows:

(a) In the past ten years, the Planning Department has received a total of 901 complaints regarding land filling activities in the rural areas of New Territories involving 708 different sites. However, the Department does not have detailed information on the sizes of sites involved.

(b) In the past ten years, no works for new town development, road construction and river training in the New Territories have turned land in the vicinity into low-lying areas. When implementing new town development projects (including land formation, road construction and river training), the Government would carry out project feasibility study and assessment as prescribed by established procedures and would implement the project in accordance with the relevant design standards and statutory requirements. Moreover, during the construction phase, adequate drainage facilities would be provided in the construction sites and in its vicinity.

Low-lying areas bordering main watercourses in the New Territories are mostly natural flood-plains and susceptible to frequent flooding. To enhance the flood relief capacity of watercourses, it is often necessary to widen and deepen these watercourses and build embankment to prevent flooding. The purpose of river training works is to alleviate flooding in flood-plains. In no circumstances will these works lead to the enlargement of low-lying areas.

(c) The majority of those who lodged complaints with the Planning Department are local residents directly affected by land filling activities. Illegal land filling activities in rural areas of the New Territories cause environmental, traffic and drainage problems such as the loss of agricultural land, air and environmental pollution, spoiling of rural landscape, blockage of access and serious flooding. All this will bring adverse impact to the lives and activities of local residents.

To quote some examples, the large-scale land filling activity in a village in Tai Po has created dangerous slopes and threatened the safety of local residents. The serious flooding in a private housing development in Yuen Long in recent years is also mainly attributable to land filling activity in an adjacent site. This land filling activity led to the filling up of a natural watercourse within the site and as a result rainwater cannot be drained away properly.

(d) Last year, the TPB revised the "Notes" of the "Agricultural" zone in the relevant Outline Zoning Plans. The amendments stipulate that all land filling activities require prior planning permission from the TPB unless the laying of soil serves cultivation purpose and does not exceed 1.2 metres in thickness.

In preparing the amendments, the TPB took account of the comments from the relevant departments. According to the information provided by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, the thickness of the top soil required for cultivation of vegetables is roughly about 0.3 to 0.45 metre while that for trees is about 1 to 1.2 metres. As such, the laying of soil not exceeding 1.2 metres is adopted as the criterion for exempting planning permission. In this way, usual agricultural activities will not be affected. It is considered that such arrangement has struck a balance between the need to control illegal land filling activities and to avoid causing nuisance to bona fide agricultural activities.

As the amendment would take immediate effect upon promulgation, the Administration did not conduct public consultation before its gazetting in order not to undermine the effectiveness of the control work. Nevertheless, the Town Planning Ordinance has provided for a statutory channel under which any person could lodge an objection against the amendments to the TPB during the exhibition of the relevant plans. All objections will be considered by the TPB in accordance with the said Ordinance. The TPB will deliberate on the grounds of objections before making a final decision. During the plan exhibition period, the Planning Department has issued information papers and explained the amendments to the Heung Yee Kuk as well as the relevant District Councils and the Rural Committees.

We will try to keep dump out of park, says environment official
12 January 2006
South China Morning Post

The government will examine ways to avoid a landfill extension encroaching on the Clear Water Bay Country Park, a senior environment official pledged yesterday.

Ellen Chan Ying-lung, an assistant director of the Environmental Protection Department, said different engineering techniques were being studied to expand the Tseung Kwan O landfill without touching the park.

"Our first priority is to avoid encroaching on the Clear Water Bay Country Park," she said. "No option has been chosen at this stage."

She said one option was to deepen the dump site by building a higher wall around it, allowing it to hold more rubbish.

The South China Morning Post revealed on Tuesday that one option to expand the landfill involved slicing off up to 5.1 hectares of land in the country park, which would have an impact on rare and protected butterflies and birds. There are two other options which would not encroach on the park.

The plan has drawn heavy criticism from green activists, who have described it as ridiculous. Members of the Country and Marine Parks Board, which is examining the project, have also expressed reservations.

Dr Chan said residents and green groups would be consulted on the project, but pointed out that not all waste was recyclable.

"Even if we are able to reduce and recycle waste as much as possible, there will still be more than 4 million tonnes of non-recyclable waste that needs to be disposed of each year," she said.

Green groups yesterday said the pledge was not good enough.

Lister Cheung Lai-ping, chief executive of the Conservancy Association, questioned the department's determination to protect the country parks.

"If encroaching on the country park was not included in the department's scope, I don't think the consultant would have come up with the option."

Choy So-yuk, chairwoman of the Legislative Council environmental affairs panel, said a meeting would be held to discuss the matter. "Doesn't this [government] reply imply that [the department] wanted to turn part of the country park into a landfill? I'm very upset our government tried to take the lead in destroying our country parks."

LCQ6: Progress of the waste recovery and recycling programmes
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Raymond Ho and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (January 11) :

Question:

The objectives of the waste recovery and recycling programmes implemented by the Environmental Protection Department are to enhance waste recovery and recycling, and minimize waste which requires disposal. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the percentage of recyclable waste in the total amount of waste recovered in the past three years;

(b) as the waste recovery and recycling programmes include domestic waste recovery programmes, commercial and industrial waste recovery programmes and pilot product responsibility programmes, of the most effective type of programmes in the past three years and the supporting data for that; and

(c) of the overseas experience in implementing the domestic waste recovery programmes and commercial and industrial waste recovery programmes and the supporting data for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) In 2002-2004, the recovery rate of locally generated municipal solid waste (MSW) ranges from 36% to 41% with an average of 39%. The recovered materials were either recycled locally (about 9%) or exported for recycling (91%). The quantities recovered by material types and the corresponding recovery rates are attached in Annex I. Summing up, the recovered rate in metals is more than 90%, which is the highest one; 70% in electrical and electronic equipment; and 50% in paper and rubber tyres. We have submitted a detailed annex for reference (Annex I).

With the measures set out in the Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste in Hong Kong issued in December 2005, we aim to increase the MSW recovery rate to 45% by 2009 and 50% by 2014.

(b) In 2002-2004, the overall average recovery rate for domestic waste was 14% and that for commercial and industrial (C&I) waste was around 59%.

The Government has been testing out various forms of domestic waste separation and recovery in recent years with a view to identifying the modes that are most convenient to residents, cost-effective and best suit local needs. The Government is now actively promoting the territory-wide programme on source separation of domestic waste, which is a major domestic waste reduction initiative launched in 2005. The implementation of the source separation programme aims to increase the domestic waste recovery rate from the present 14% to 20% by 2007 and 26% by 2012 with the help of other measures such as MSW charging and mandatory producer responsibility schemes being in place.

The recovery rate for C&I waste is relatively high because the recyclables from C&I sources are generally more uniform and less contaminated than domestic waste. Although the C&I sector in Hong Kong is already doing quite well in waste recovery and recycling, the Government will continue to encourage the business sector through measures like the Wastewi$e Scheme to promote waste reduction and recycling of C&I waste.

Producer responsibility schemes (PRSs) work by assigning responsibilities to appropriate parties to collect, recycle and properly dispose of used products that do not have a ready market. A voluntary producer responsibility scheme for recovering rechargeable batteries was initiated in April 2005. Based on overseas experience, it would take time for similar programmes to fully develop their effectiveness. Legislation will be introduced into the Legislative Council in 2006 to provide the framework for PRSs, with product-specific measures introduced through subsidiary legislation subsequently.

(c) In other countries, the waste recovery rate of the C&I sector is also generally higher than that of the domestic sector like that in Hong Kong. For the domestic sector, many countries have implemented various household waste recovery programmes which include door-to-door collection of recyclables, setting up of waste separation facilities in public places as well as introduction of domestic waste charging through use of pre-paid refuse bags etc. Some examples are given in Table 1 in the Annex II.

In simple terms, the recovery rate for domestic waste in Taipei is 27%. Recyclable materials are collected five days a week free of charge whereas non-recyclable waste or trash has to be put in special pre-paid trash bags for collection. Contravention carries a penalty. In Fukuoka, Japan, “Home garbage Collection Fee” has been charged since October 1, 2005. Citizens have to buy designated garbage bags from local supermarkets and convenience stores. In Korea, the recovery rate of 38.2 % is among the highest. A Volume-based Waste Fee System imposes different treatment cost as determined by the amount of waste generated by each household. Waste is collected in purchased volume-based bags. Recyclables are sorted and put out in separate bins.

The use of economic instruments to boost the recovery rate is becoming popular in many overseas countries. The policy instrument that attracts most attention in recent years is PRS. Under PRS, the obligation for managing end-of-life products is placed on the producers, distributors or sellers of the products. A well-designed PRS spurs producers to design products that generate less waste, or that can be reused or recycled. PRS has been widely employed through legislation in Europe, North America and Asia to manage products such as electrical and electronic equipment, batteries, packaging materials and vehicle tyres. However, the degree of success of such schemes depends on a series of factors such as the recovery arrangement, publicity of the programme and the environmental awareness of the general public. Among the overseas PRS programmes being implemented so far, two selected successful examples are given in Table 2 in the Annex II. Norway has achieved a recovery rate of over 90% in accordance with the EU guideline on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE). In addition, the tyres recovery rate in Alberta, Canada is 14%. An advance disposal fee of C $4/tyre is imposed on the sale of new tyres. Therefore, we have been able to make reference to many successful or unsuccessful overseas examples as a reference before developing a recovery programme which is suitable to Hong Kong.

Charges for disposal of polluting waste from ships to be revised
Government Press Release
Friday, January 13, 2006

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) proposes to revise the existing charges under the Merchant Shipping (Prevention and Control of Pollution) (Charges for Discharge of Polluting Waste) Regulation.

An EPD spokesman said today (January 13) that the charges for the discharge of polluting waste were set out in Schedule 2 to the Regulation.

"Such charges are payable to the Government for the use of reception facilities provided by the Chemical Waste Treatment Centre for the purpose of collection and disposal of pollution waste, such as liquid oil waste and sludge, from sea-going ships," he said.

After gazettal today, the Amendment Regulation will be tabled in the Legislative Council on Wednesday (January 18). The proposed new rates are scheduled for implementation on March 31, 2006.

The spokesman said the revision was a move towards the target of achieving full recovery of the variable operating cost and the departmental administration costs for providing the service. "The charges were last revised in 1997/98 financial year. A costing review at 2004/05 prices shows that the charges need to be increased." he added.

"The adjustment will be phased over a period of four years in order to avoid a large one-off increase," the spokesman said, noting that the Government would still have to bear the full fixed operating cost and the capital cost for providing this service.

"EPD will continue to undertake necessary measures to contain costs by continuing to implement productivity improvement measures," he said.

Bus firms agree to clean up their act Environmental moves give HK a lead in use of zero-sulfur fuels
15 January 2006
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong buses may lead Asia in the use of zero-sulfur fuels after franchised companies agreed to environmental improvements, the transport chief said yesterday.

By 2009, the three franchised bus companies will be using zero-sulfur diesel oil and their buses will be fitted with emission-reduction devices, Commissioner for Transport Alan Wong Chi-kong said. Only Japan has moved to the much cleaner fuel for its public transport system.

City buses will also be fitted with black boxes to monitor the driver's performance and improve road safety. All buses will have black boxes, which cost about $10,000 each, by next year.

The new conditions are to be added to the government's franchise agreements with Citybus, New Lantao Bus and Kowloon Motor Bus.

The three are seeking to extend their franchises for another 10 years, after their current ones expire in 2007, on June 30, March 31 and July 31, respectively.

Sulfur in diesel directly contributes to the formation of particulate matter of less than 10 microns in diameter in engine exhaust. These are linked to health problems, particularly respiratory conditions. Zero-sulfur fuels contain less than 10 parts per million of sulfur.

Also by 2009, buses owned by the three companies are to be retrofitted with continuous regenerating traps to further reduce particulate matter. The retrofitting will cost up to $100 million.

Mr Wong said Citybus and KMB had committed to deploying additional buses of Euro III or IV standard on busy roads such as Des Voeux Road Central, Queensway, Hennessy Road, Yee Wo Street in Causeway Bay and Nathan Road to help reduce roadside emissions.

This could reduce each bus' emissions of particulate matter by up to 94 per cent, carbon monoxide by up to 65 per cent, and hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides by up to 54 per cent.

Mr Wong said it was possible that in three years, only low-emission buses would ply busy roads like those in Causeway Bay and Central.

Construction waste disposal charges start Friday
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Government Press Release

The levy of charges for the disposal of construction waste at government facilities will start from Friday (January 20), a spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said today (January 18).

The charges for disposing of one tonne of construction waste at public fill reception facilities, sorting facilities and landfills are $27, $100 and $125 respectively.

Since the Construction Waste Disposal Charging Scheme came into operation on December 1, 2005, EPD had received, as at January 13, more than 10,000 account applications, the spokesman said.

Under the charging scheme, construction waste producers are required to open a billing account with the EPD in advance for disposing of construction waste. Anyone disposing of construction waste at public fill reception facilities, sorting facilities and landfills is required to hand in chits issued under a billing account upon delivery of waste to these facilities. Similarly, for the refuse transfer stations on outlying islands, valid chits are required for the disposal of construction waste.

Account holders are reminded to collect the chits from relevant offices of EPD or the Civil Engineering and Development Department as soon as possible.

As the scheme is devised in such a way that waste haulers are not responsible for the payment of the levy, there will be little incentive for fly tipping. Nonetheless, the spokesman said the EPD would spare no efforts in tackling fly tipping activities, and will step up enforcement action against the practice.

In December, the EPD conducted some 500 inspections and ambush operations at about 240 fly tipping blackspots throughout the territory.

He warned against the illegal disposal of construction waste, pointing out that those who commit such offences under the Waste Disposal Ordinance are liable to a maximum penalty of $200,000 and six months' imprisonment.

The spokesman said that under the charging scheme, a tripartite working group with representatives from waste haulers, construction trade and government departments had met more than 12 times since the end of 2004 to work out the implementation details. The working group has provided a very useful channel for close liaison among relevant stakeholders, and all three parties agreed that the working group should continue after the charging scheme comes into operation.

Dry runs involving the construction industry and the haulers have been carried out at the government disposal facilities since July last year in order to allow the trade to familiarise themselves with the operational details and to fine-tune the logistic arrangements.

To further remind the trade and the public, EPD has launched a series of promotional publicity including the broadcasting of Announcements of Public Interest on TV and radio since the last quarter of 2005.

From October to December last year, some 32 seminars were organised and more than 3,500 representatives from government departments and the concerned trades attended, he added.

SETW visits model estates in source separation of waste
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Government Press Release

http://gia.info.gov.hk/general/200601/22/P200601220146_photo_305988.JPG
The Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, is please to see City One Shatin residents recover used batteries and cartridge.

http://gia.info.gov.hk/general/200601/22/P200601220146_photo_305940.JPG
City One Shatin residents showing how they practise source separation of waste at home to the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, during her visit.

The Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, called on members of the public to take part in the “Recycle to Clean, Making New Year Green” campaign launched by the Environmental Protection Department (EPD).

She made the appeal today (January 22) when she visited model estates in source separation of waste and saw how residents of these estates reduced, recycled and reused waste during their annual clean-up before the Lunar New Year.

The EPD’s campaign aims at encouraging housing estates to strengthen their waste recovery activities by collecting recyclable or reusable materials, such as clothing, toys, computers, electrical and electronic appliances, furniture for resale to recyclers or donation to charitable organisations.

To facilitate the clean-up operations, EPD’s 13 refuse transfer stations (RTS) will be opened to the public for the collection of recyclable or reusable materials for the period from January 21 to 27. The relevant information is available at EPD’s website at www.epd.gov.hk. For enquiries, please call 2838 3111.

In today’s visit, Dr Liao, accompanied by EPD officers, started off from City One Shatin where she saw how the residents there practised the separation of waste at source during their clean-up and how they made use of waste separation facilities in the refuse room.

She proceeded to Grand View Garden in Wong Tai Sin, a home ownership housing scheme, to see how residents participated in recyclables collection programmes and then to Shun Lee Disciplined Services Quarters in Kwun Tong where she was briefed on the expansion of the scope of recyclables recovered.

Besides paper, aluminium cans and plastic bottles that are currently collected by the 3-coloured waste separation bins, the types of recyclables recovered will be broadened to include other types of recyclables such as plastic bags and biscuit tins.

It is noted that all government quarters managed by the Government Property Agency would practise this expanded-type mode by the first quarter of 2006.

Dr Liao was briefed on how source separation of waste was practised on each floor of the building during her visit to Lei Yue Mun Estate, a public housing estate in Kwun Tong.

"I’m pleased to see the positive and increasing response from residents in separating the domestic waste at source,” Dr Liao said.

As of December last year, a total of 223 housing estates with 350,000 households had enrolled in the territory-wide programme on source separation of domestic waste.

Each housing estate participating in the programme is expected to achieve a 50 per cent increase in recovered quantities after the first year of implementation.

Getting rid of a killer in the air
Andrea Chiu
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, January 31, 2006

When Liberal Party chairman James Tien last month introduced a motion in the Legislative Council "endeavoring to improve air quality," he called for idling engines to be banned throughout Hong Kong along with other initiatives to combat air pollution.

Although lawmakers passed the motion, it may not mean drivers will have to switch off engines any time soon.

In 2000, the government rejected the Legislative Council's All-Party Clean Air Alliance's proposal to legislate a ban and has since maintained that a bylaw is unnecessary.

But Tien is fed up and argues the government's current initiatives to reduce car idling through education are not enough.

With Hong Kong's air quality under constant criticism from the public, media and even foreign business investors, Tien believes it is time for more political will. The proof, he says, is in the air.

"A few years ago, the government said we don't need a law, we just need public education and that will do the job," Tien said. "But it's not the case as last summer we still saw people leaving their cars running with the air conditioning on."

In his policy address last October, Chief Executive Donald Tsang vowed to take "vigorous measures to make sustained improvement to air quality."

Much of the focus was on reducing emissions from power companies and Hong Kong's cooperation with Guangdong, but he acknowledged the need to turn off idling engines.

"We will issue guidelines to all government drivers, requiring them to sw
itch off engines while waiting. We will appeal to private car drivers to exercise the same self-discipline," Tsang said in October.

But guidelines are not enforceable by law and while the administration acknowledges the effects of idle engines, it insists legislation is not needed.

"We consider the approach of advising drivers to switch off engines while waiting through education and publicity effective," Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao said in October when responding to a question raised by Tien in Legco.

Liao said from 2002-04, the Environmental Protection Department received 770 complaints and 77 percent of these did not attract further complainants.

This, combined with the Transport Department's letter warnings asking transport operators to comply with the no idling engine guidelines, is enough, but "the government will continue to appeal to drivers to exercise self- discipline on no idling engines through promotional and educational activities," Liao said.

Despite the secretary's boasting of a 77 percent success rate, the number of complaints against idling engines increased from 238 in 2002 to 308 last year. Liao also told Legco the EPD had carried out hundreds of man-hours in operations to advise drivers to turn off their engines while waiting.

"Based on the experience of the EPD staff, only a very small number of drivers disregarded the advice" Liao said. "Most of them would switch off the engine or drive away immediately."

But the department has no record of how many drivers were given advice or what percentage of idlers turned off their engines during these operations.

Despite the EPD's initiatives, a spokeswoman for the department said it has not actually conducted any study on the effects of idling engines.

The health department also has no data on air pollution's impact on Hong Kong health.

A conservative estimate is that there are 3,500 premature deaths related to air pollution in Hong Kong every year, said Anthony Hedley, chair professor at Hong Kong University's Department of Community Medicine. "It could be higher and we're probably talking about 35,000 hospital admissions each year," Hedley said.

These deaths are in the form of cardiopulmonary diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

If the government took more action, it could save many lives, according to a joint study by Hong Kong University and London University published in 2002.

The study found that after the government introduced regulations to cut sulfur emissions from fuel in 1990, deaths from heart and lung disease dropped by an average of 2 percent and 4.48 percent, respectively.

Hong Kong residents can live an average of 20 to 40 days longer because of the environmental measure, the study inferred.

A restriction on idling engines could have similar health benefits to the regulations on sulfur emissions from fuel since idle engines spew out more pollutants than traveling engines.

"The engine is designed for operating conditions to make it most efficient," said Ming Fang, adjunct professor of chemical engineering at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

He said engines are not designed to idle and so, when a car is switched on and waiting, more pollutants will leave the tailpipe.

There is no such thing as complete combustion of an engine, Fang said, but at least a traveling car achieves more complete combustion than one which is idling.

Tien would like to see an all-out ban on idle engines with the exception of taxis and minibuses. Unlike anti-idling by-laws in Canada where there are often exemptions based on high and low temperatures, Tien says exceptions would make for difficult enforcement.

Edwin Lau, assistant director of green group Friends of the Earth, however, is in favor of a more gradual ban.

"We can start with sensitive areas," he said. "Ban idling around areas such as nursery schools, elderly homes and hospitals. People there are more vulnerable to air pollution."

Lau does not think the government's current initiatives are sufficient to improve air quality.

The government needs to conduct a full study to prove its measures are effective in combating idle engines, he said.

Hong Kong people fail to switch off their engines due to a lack of awareness, Lau said. But legislation would mean less of a need for education as a HK$1,500 fine speaks louder than an information pamphlet.

"From our angle, education and encouragement are not as effective as a piece of legislation," he said. "We encourage education and awareness to go parallel with legislation for the best result."

Greens urge department to step up recycling of waste foam
1 February 2006
South China Morning Post

The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has been urged to play a more active role in waste recycling, after a green group's study found tonnes of foam containers discarded at wet markets could have been recycled instead of being dumped in landfills.

The group called for 158 refuse collection points run by the department and about 80 vacant sites under flyovers to be turned into recovery centres for different types of waste.

But a spokesman for the department said it needed time to study recycling efforts at refuse collection points.

During the study, about 4.2 tonnes of foam boxes were collected by contractors at two refuse collection points in Fa Yuen Street, Mongkok, and Yue Man Fong, Kwun Tong. The foam containers were usually thrown away every afternoon by pet fish traders and fresh vegetable vendors and hygiene officers were responsible for disposing of them.

"The boxes were scattered in the markets and they were usually crushed and mixed with organic waste at the refuse collection points before being taken to the landfills. But this practice would spoil and contaminate all the valuable foam waste," said Devin Cheng, project officer of the group.

For the study, department workers were asked to sort the foam boxes from other waste and save them for collection contractors who were paid from the proceeds of selling the foam.

Mr Cheng said that while the sorting caused extra work, the practice could save money because the number of waste pickups was cut by one truckload each week.

"During the study, we found that some mainlanders holding visitor permits visited the markets to collect the foam as it could be sold at a good price on the mainland," he said.

At present, recyclers offer about $1 for two large foam boxes. There are at least three foam recyclers in the city that can turn the waste into plastic raw material or other products.

The city disposes of 130 tonnes of foam a day, enough to fill 130 double-decker buses. Nearly all foam is dumped in landfills.

There are no formal channels of recovery as it is not deemed cost-effective to transport the bulky material for recycling.

RTHK News
Very high air pollution levels hit parts of HK (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060207&56&286318)

Pollution level high due to lack of wind (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060207&56&286372)

Hong Kong choking beneath worst smog this year

HONG KONG, Feb 7, 2006 (AFP) - Hong Kong was choking under a cloud of unseasonable smog Tuesday with air pollution at its highest level in five months, triggering a government health warning.

Citizens with heart or lung complaints were advised to stay off the streets of the southern Chinese territory as dangerous particulate levels reached 105 on the environmental protection department's air pollution index.

A reading higher than 100 is considered harmful to health and triggers an automatic health warning announced on radio and TV.

The government's Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said the higher-than-expected pollution levels had been caused by cool settled weather the night before trapping smog within Hong Kong's high-rise canyons.

The worst affected areas were the Causeway Bay shopping district, which reached 105, and the Central business district, which hit 102, in the morning.

Such conditions are more typical of autumn than winter.

The index went past the 200-mark in September 2004, a year for records when Hong Kong experienced 65 days of smog.

Pollution is a growing problem in Hong Kong, which is inundated by smog from the heavily industrialised Pearl River Delta Region of neighbouring southern China.

The government and environmentalists Friends of the Earth Hong Kong estimate that 80 percent of the pollutants recorded in Hong Kong drift in from China, mostly from vehicle exhausts and factory and power plant fumes.

LCQ4 : Introduction of environmentally-friendly vehicles to reduce vehicular emissions
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Jeffrey Lam and an oral reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, in the Legislative Council meeting today (February 8) :

Question:

Regarding the introduction of environmentally-friendly vehicles to reduce vehicular emissions, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) of the results to-date of the operational tests conducted on the five electric-petroleum hybrid motor cars purchased by the Government last year; and how such vehicles compare to ordinary petroleum motor cars in terms of emissions, fuel consumption and repair and maintenance costs; and

(b) whether it will consider offering tax concessions to encourage the public to switch to environmentally-friendly vehicles?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) In April 2005 the Government introduced five hybrid sedans for a two-year trial in various Government departments. The trial was to assess the maintenance requirements and operating efficiency of this type of vehicle when used in Government's vehicular fleet under local conditions. Results of the initial seven months of operation show that -

(i) The maintenance cost for hybrid sedans is similar to that for petrol-fueled sedans of the same class. However, due to the short duration of the trial, conclusion can be made only when the data are subject to detailed analysis upon the completion of the test;

(ii) The fuel consumption for hybrid sedans is about half of that for petrol-fueled sedans of the same class.

According to the information we gathered, the emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides of these five hybrid sedans are about 40% less than those of petrol sedans of the same class complying with the Euro IV standard. These two key pollutants are responsible for the photochemical smog affecting Hong Kong in recent years. In terms of green house gases, the emission of carbon dioxide is also halved.

(b) The Chief Executive has clearly pointed out in his 2005 Policy Address that the Government will consider using hybrid vehicles that have lower emissions on a wider scale, once more models become available on the market and are judged to be cost-effective, and will also encourage the community to do the same. We will closely monitor the market conditions with a view to formulating appropriate policy to encourage the use of hybrid vehicles.

High API today! :ohno:

RTHK News:
Health advice as air pollution levels soar in Hong Kong
2006-02-11 HKT 11:23

The Air Pollution Index in Central and Causeway Bay has soared to very high levels today with a smoggy haze clearly visible along the harbourfront. The A-P-I reading at roadside monitoring stations in Causeway Bay has reached 122; and 112 in Central. The Environmental Protection Department is advising those with heart and respiratory problems to avoid strenuous outdoor activities today; and to avoid areas of heavy traffic.

渣打馬拉松 五千人傷兩命危
空氣污濁跑到斷氣
13/02/2006
太陽報

http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/news/20060213/img/sn01021302_big.jpg

打破歷年紀錄，昨日有接近四萬名健兒，在空氣污染指數平均高達一百以上的環境下，參加了「第十屆渣打馬拉松」比賽，前所未有地令五千名參賽選手抽筋及擦傷手腳，更有二十二人感到不適送院，其中一名五十三歲男選手突然缺氧呼吸停頓，經送院急救後仍須倚賴儀器輔助呼吸，情況危殆，恐變成植物人。另一名三十三歲健兒亦腦缺氧及心臟停頓，幸經過急救後甦醒，但仍未脫離危險期。

第十屆渣打馬拉松比賽，昨日在本港空氣質素極差的情況下舉行。天文台測試本港各區的空氣污染指數，平均都在一百以上，馬拉松比賽沿途中的旺角，指數更高達一三三，由於今年為馬拉松比賽的十周年，故也特別多人參加，大會估計人數接近四萬，已打破歷屆紀錄。

比賽過程中，有不少健兒相繼跌傷及擦傷手腳，醫療輔助隊共處理四千八百二十五宗抽筋、二百三十二宗水泡傷口個案，比起上屆高出一倍，傷者中有二十二人要送院救治，兩人經救治後情況仍然危殆。

患哮喘仍堅持參賽
其中命危的曾錦賢（五十三歲）男跑手，與家人同住大埔區，他在酒店工作，為家中經濟支柱，兩子女正唸大學。家人稱，曾錦賢患有哮喘病，病情近年轉差，臨睡前有時會氣促，須靠噴霧治療才能入睡；雖然頑疾纏身，但他熱愛跑步，過去兩年均有參加渣打馬拉松長跑賽，都分別因為天氣冷及扭傷腳，不能跑完整個賽程，今年他偕友人一起報名參加，目標是要完成全程。

腦缺氧恐變植物人
昨日本港空氣質素很差，曾錦賢離家前，家人已勸他最好退出，但他堅持要參賽；早上九時許，他跑了約十三公里至青馬大橋橋面，突然暈倒並呼吸停頓，工作人員通知在場醫生和護士趕來，為他進行心肺復甦法急救，再由救護車送往瑪嘉烈醫院搶救。不過，由於他腦部缺氧，身體部分機能已受損，經急救後現仍靠儀器幫助呼吸。醫生擔心曾錦賢若一直昏迷，可能會變成植物人。曾的家人事後對主辦單位的安排極表不滿，批評曾錦賢出事後，主辦單位並沒有派代表到醫院探望和慰問。

另一名情況危殆的男跑手朱文治（三十三歲），參加半馬拉松賽事。昨晨十時許，朱跑到距離終點尚有一百公尺時突然暈倒，在場醫生和護士上前為他急救後送院，現在深切治療部留醫。朱的十多名親友和友事後趕抵醫院，在病房外等候和禱告，希望他大步檻過。據稱，朱嚴重虛脫，心跳一度停頓和腦部缺氧；朱的家人探望後稱，朱幸已甦醒，他以前參加長跑亦曾暈倒，目前不敢將事件通知其母，恐她受不住刺激。

Tasks for improving HK's Air quality from News.gov.hk: :|
http://news.gov.hk/en/category/environment/060213/html/060213en04001.htm

Hong Kong committed to combating air pollution
Monday, February 13, 2006
Government Press Release

In response to the very high Air Pollution Indices on Saturday and Sunday, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) reiterated today (February 13) that Hong Kong does not tolerate foul air.

The highest API on Sunday morning was 149 recorded at Causeway Bay. The EPD advised that people with existing heart or respiratory illnesses (such as coronary heart and cardiovascular diseases, asthma, chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive airways diseases) are advised to reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities.

"Over the weekend, the peak concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide were 5.3 times and 17.9 times respectively of their average levels over the year. While the calm weather caused the accumulation of pollutants, the solution must be to cut the emissions of air pollutants," an EPD spokesman said.

"Hong Kong has made good progress in reducing the emissions of nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds in recent years. The 2004 emissions were reduced by 16%, 28% and 23% respectively compared with 1997," the spokesman said.

"Despite the progress made so far, it is unavoidable that we will still be seeing some days with high APIs. Members of the public especially the elderly and people with heart and respiratory diseases are advised to check the APIs and stick to the health advice," the spokesman added.

"With the implementation of a comprehensive programme to reduce vehicle emissions, emissions of particulates and nitrogen oxides from motor vehicles in the urban areas have been reduced by 80% and 40% respectively. The number of smoky vehicles on the road has also been reduced by about 80%. The number of days with the API exceeding 100 was 87 days in 2004 and 49 days in 2005," the spokesman said.

"However, much of our effort has been vitiated by the increase in emissions from the local power companies. The emission of sulphur dioxide in Hong Kong actually increased by 47% between 1997 and 2004. To achieve a sustained improvement in our air quality, power companies must substantially reduce their emissions," he said.

"At high levels, sulphur dioxide reduces lung function and increases morbidity and mortality rates. Reacting with other pollutants in the air, it forms very fine sulphur particles. Analyses have shown that up to 30% of the very fine particles in the air are sulphate. It is a major component of the smog over the region," the spokesman said.

Power generation emits 92% of the sulphur dioxide and half of the nitrogen oxides in Hong Kong. Between 1997 and 2004, the emission of sulphur dioxide by power generation increased by as much as 60%. Hence the EPD puts power plants under close surveillance. Plants of CLP were inspected six times in 2005.

"To explore means to reduce emissions effectively, the EPD had informed the two local power companies as early as July 2003 of the 2010 emission caps for the power sector. For the case of CLP, the Permanent Secretary for the Environment and other senior officers of the Environment Branch of the Bureau visited CLP on August 14, 2004 and met personally with the Managing Director of CLP Power, Mrs Betty Yuen, to listen to their emission reduction proposal," the spokesman said.

"Apart from making local efforts to reduce emissions, the HKSAR Government has been working with the Guangdong Authorities to reduce emissions of the entire Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region," he said.

On September 28, 2005, the Chief Executive and the Governor of Guangdong Province reiterated that the two sides would implement the PRD Regional Air Quality Management Plan (Management Plan) progressively with a view to achieving the agreed emissions reduction targets for air pollutants by 2010.

"Since November 30, 2005, the monitoring network jointly established under the Management Plan has been commissioned and the PRD Regional Air Quality Index is published on a daily basis. The enhanced control measures under the Management Plan have been well on schedule," the spokesman said.

In 2006, the major tasks under the Management Plan will include the following:

(a) On combating air pollution from the power generation industry, Phase I construction of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) trunk pipeline in Guangdong Province will be completed in 2006 and a number of LNG power plants are expected to be commissioned in phases. This will substantially reduce the PRD's reliance on the more polluting fuel oil and coal. Moreover, existing oil-fired and coal-fired power plants in Guangdong Province will continue to install flue gas desulphurisation systems;

(b) On controlling emissions from motor vehicles, the Guangdong Provincial Government will strive to advance the implementation of National III motor vehicle emission standards (on a par with Euro III ones) in PRD cities while Hong Kong will implement Euro IV motor vehicle emission standards in line with the EU in 2006;

(c) The data collected by the Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network will be analysed by the environmental protection authorities of the two governments. A regional air quality monitoring report will be submitted on a half-year basis, providing the public with more information on the air quality in the PRD;

(d) The environmental protection authorities of the two governments will continue to strengthen technical exchanges and joint studies, especially on continuous emissions monitoring of stationary pollution sources and commissioning studies on regional air pollution on a need basis; and

(e) Details of the Emission Trading Pilot Scheme for Thermal Power Plants in the PRD Region being jointly developed by the two sides are expected to be finalised by mid-2006. Subject to agreement of the two governments, details will be presented to the power plants in Hong Kong and Guangdong in the third quarter of 2006 so that prospective participants can identify their trading partners and draw up emission trading agreements.

Power firms criticised after poor weekend air quality
14 February 2006
South China Morning Post

The government yesterday took the power companies to task for last weekend's poor air quality, noting that the concentration of sulfur dioxide was 17.9 times the average level. The administration said 92 per cent of sulfur dioxide emissions in the city came from Hongkong Electric and CLP Power.

Sulfur dioxide reduces lung function and increases disease and death rates.

The Environmental Protection Department said the highest air pollution index reading on Sunday morning was 149 in Causeway Bay. It said it would not tolerate foul air, and detailed the measures it had taken to improve air quality.

However, much of the effort had been impaired by the increase in emissions from the local power companies, it said. "Power generation emits 92 per cent of the sulfur dioxide and half of the nitrogen oxide in Hong Kong. Between 1997 and 2004, the emission of sulfur dioxide by power generation increased by as much as 60 per cent."

The comments came as Guangdong Meteorological Bureau forecast that thick smog blanketing cities in the Peal River Delta would continue for the next few days and warned residents to avoid exercising outdoors.

The haze descended on the delta on Saturday and worsened on Sunday with high air pollution indexes and low visibility recorded in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Jiangmen , Maoming , Yunfu and Chaozhou .

Guangzhou suffered the most severe pollution, with a reading of 161 on Sunday. A reading of more than 100 means air quality is rated "polluted".

Honestly, I don't think HK's pollution problem isn't that bad compared to other Asian cities. I was Manila weeks back and I'll tell you it's polluted there!

It's getting really bad. The smog blocks the harbour on a number of days, especially during the winter.

is this a hong kong idea only or is this for the whole of china?

is this a hong kong idea only or is this for the whole of china?
Almost all of Hong Kong's smog is blown across the border from China. In China, air pollution is a major problem along the east coast, where most of the factories are located (around Hong Kong and around Shanghai).

are they doing anything about it?

Within Hong Kong, there is a push to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. Taxis have been switching to LPG while buses now adhere to Euro III/IV standards. The situation in China is radically different. While they are doing some things, there are just so many factories that it's unrealistic to expect they'll shut down soon.

well... good for hong kong!

From news.gov.hk:
Domestic waste separation results encouraging (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/environment/060215/html/060215en04002.htm)

空氣污染令外商卻步
16/02/2006

【本報訊】香港科技大學一項研究顯示本港的空氣污染可能源自電力公司。本港空氣污染嚴重程度已令外商卻步，來港履任半年的美國駐香港及澳門總領事郭明瀚表示，有居港美商擔心空氣污染影響子女健康，考慮撤離香港，促請商界與港府正視空氣污染問題。

科大環境及持續發展研究所於○二至○三年間，分別兩次以一輛流動汽車在新界及九龍收集污染數據，研究進行當日香港吹西南海風，但一些近郊地區如大埔近八仙嶺，二氧化硫（SO2）濃度為66ppb，比屯門市區的30ppb高一倍；比西貢近科技大學的6ppb高十倍，顯示污染物並非由北面的內地吹來，而是本土生產，相信二氧化硫是來自中電青山發電廠的燃煤發電，氮氧化物則來自燃氣發電，被西南風吹至大埔及粉嶺。

中電發言人表示，正研究科大的數據，但認為在路邊收集數據可能受其他污染源頭影響。中電青山發電廠西面的珠三角範圍也設有電廠，因此對研究結果抱疑問。http://the-sun.orisun.com/channels/img/endmarker.gif

From news.gov.hk:
Emission trading scheme set for power plants (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/infrastructureandlogistics/060216/html/060216en01002.htm)

Warning of disaster from HK's pollution
19 February 2006
South China Morning Post

Pollution fighter Anthony Hedley has called for a 10-point plan to clear Hong Kong's air before a disaster hits the city.

His plea was sparked by pollution levels earlier this month when nitrogen dioxide and particulate levels in the air reached 150 to 200 micrograms per cubic metre.

Professor Hedley, chair professor in community medicine at the University of Hong Kong, said the levels were more than seven times those considered dangerous in Canada and New Zealand for particulates, and more than five times the WHO European guideline for nitrogen dioxide.

"It's pushing people into hospital beds, doctors' clinics and coffins," he said. The estimated cost of the affects of sickness from pollutants to hospitals, government services and companies is more than $1.3 billion a year. It also kills 3,500 to 4,000 people a year through heart and lung disease and stroke.

"We are running the risk of a disaster. The 'Asian Brown Cloud' shows a continuing haze over most of Asia. Hong Kong is part of that. It is quite possible if present trends continue that there could be a catastrophic episode."

Virtually everyone is exposed to the risk of damage to heart, lung and arterial systems from breathing air pollutants. The four most common and harmful pollutants are fine particulates, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and ozone - a secondary pollutant that is formed by the action of sunlight on volatile organic compounds.

In addition compounds such as benzopyrene, mainly from fuel and diesel combustion, have been implicated in causing respiratory cancers and leukaemia.

Children and the elderly are the most vulnerable to pollutants, but in people of all ages pollution may lead to health problems.

Professor Hedley has said that each 10 micrograms of pollutant per cubic metre of air causes or aggravates respiratory symptoms such as coughing, phlegm, wheezing and sore throats in up to 40,000 primary schoolchildren aged eight to 12.

He says it is a disgrace that evidence of the affects of pollution is not being translated into an effective policy aimed at eliminating the problem.

Hong Kong has taken few steps to deal with the problem since 1990 when the Environmental Protection Department restricted sulfur content of fuel oil to 0.5 per cent by weight.

This relatively modest reduction had a dramatic effect on lowering levels of sulfur dioxide, especially in the heaviest polluted districts.

The intervention provided the strongest evidence yet that pollution controls would save lives.

On average, pollution-related deaths fell by 600 a year with benefits to all age groups over 45. The reduction in respiratory deaths was nearly 5 per cent a year.

Since then, further major restrictions have been made on sulfur content in fuels.

The 10-point plan

1 Less sulfur in fuels

2 A ban on ships using highly polluting bunker fuels

3 Conversion to alternative fuels, including LPG in all commercial vehicles

4 Scrap plans for more roads in areas like Central

5 More railways instead of roads; trolley buses instead of motor buses

6 Energy production using cleaner fuels

7 Move pollution sources from densely populated areas

8 Action by business interests to use cleaner fuels in Pearl River Delta factories

9 The government must stop pretending it is doing enough and that it would not be cost-effective to clean up the air

10 Consider how we will be able to comply with new WHO air quality guidelines

Green groups split on paying for cleaner air
22 February 2006
South China Morning Post

Environmentalists disagreed yesterday on whether more government spending will solve Hong Kong's air quality problems. Currently, only about a quarter of a per cent of the annual budget goes towards tackling air pollution.

Clear the Air chairwoman Annelise Connell said tougher policies, rather than money, were needed to improve Hong Kong's air. "While we don't object to the government having subsidised taxis to switch to running on LPG, all the government needed to do was to change their policy," she said.

Government spending on improving air quality and promoting energy efficiency was $516 million in 2003, and estimated at $484.5 million last year, according to data drawn from past budgets. This estimated expenditure was roughly 0.24 per cent of the government's $199 billion total operating expenses last year.

Of the $484.5 million, $400 million was spent by the Environmental Protection Department and the rest by the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department. The portion spent by the environmental department represented roughly 18 per cent of its budget.

Friends of the Earth assistant director Edwin Lau Che-feng agreed that more appropriate policies and legislation to tackle air pollution issues are needed.

"It is very important to uphold the polluter pays principle, so that the government may not need to spend a great deal of public money to cut down pollution," he said.

Business Environment Council senior adviser Thomas Tang Sek-khuen said the government could spend more to provide incentives for businesses to be greener.

Tenders invited for construction of EcoPark in Tuen Mun
Government Press Release
Friday, February 24, 2006

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) is now inviting parties with relevant experience and expertise to bid for the tender to construct an EcoPark in Tuen Mun Area 38.

"The 20-hectare EcoPark is one of the key elements of Hong Kong's waste management strategy to promote the local recycling and environmental industry, a spokesman for the EPD said today (February 24).

"It can also help jump-start a circular economy," he added.

The Government has published "A Policy Framework for the Management of Municipal Solid Waste (2005–2014)" in December 2005 to map out a waste management strategy that places emphasis on waste reduction and recovery.

"The objective of establishing the EcoPark is to provide the recycling and environmental industry with long-term land equipped with basic infrastructure and at affordable rental.

"This can encourage the industry to put more investment in advanced and value-added recycling processes," the spokesman said.

The successful bidder is required to construct infrastructure for the EcoPark. The works comprise site formation, construction of internal roads, drains and sewers, utilities, an administration building, landscaping and ancillary facilities.

Central to the EcoPark is a multi-purpose administration building, comprising management offices, a visitor and education centre, conference rooms and other supporting and ancillary facilities for use by future tenants.

"We aim to make available the lots in Phase I for occupation by tenants by the end of 2006. The entire construction project is scheduled for completion by end 2009."

Tender documents and further information are available at Scott Wilson Limited, 38/F, Metroplaza Tower 1, 223 Hing Fong Road, Kwai Fong, New Territories.

Submissions should be addressed to the Chairman, Central Tender Board and placed in the Government Secretariat Tender Box situated in the lift lobby on the lower ground floor of the Central Government Offices (East Wing), 20 Lower Albert Road (at its junction with Garden Road), Hong Kong before noon on Friday, April 7, 2006.

For enquiries, call 2410 3713 or fax 2428 9922.

ParknShop acts to cut plastic bag use
24 February 2006
South China Morning Post

ParknShop yesterday launched a campaign it said could save 12 million plastic bags a year.

The supermarket chain began its Earth Baby campaign a day after the financial secretary said a tax on plastic bags would be introduced in the long term if voluntary measures failed to reduce their use.

The three-month campaign includes the sale of environmentally friendly shopping bags made of non-woven fabrics and programmes aimed at reducing the use of plastic bags.

It follows a similar four-month effort last year that the chain says cut use of the bags by 6 million.

ParknShop managing director Philippe Giard said the company had no opinion on the proposed measure announced in Wednesday's budget until it had more information.

"It's a question of how to change people's minds and habits," he said.

Deputy director of environmental protection, Raymond Fan Wai-ming, said the government would conduct extensive consultations with businesses and the public, and propose a scheme to the legislature by the end of the year.

"Green groups often say the government is too slow - now is the right time to [act]," Mr Fan said.

He said the amount of tax imposed on plastic bag use could be negotiated, but the purpose was to remind people to protect the environment.

Green groups estimate each Hong Kong resident uses an average of 1,300 plastic bags a year - a total of 24 million bags a day, or about 9 billion a year.

Friends of the Earth said ParknShop's target on plastic bag reduction was unacceptable and the chain was trying to avoid its social responsibility.

From news.gov.hk:
Environment experts to assess harbour scheme (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/infrastructureandlogistics/060224/html/060224en06008.htm)

RTHK news:
Green group urges newspaper readers to spurn free plastic bags and tissue packs 2006-02-26 HKT 12:01

An environmental concern group, Green Sense, has urged newspaper readers to reject the free distribution of plastic bags and packs of tissue when they make their daily purchases. The call came after a study of 400 people showed that 90% will accept free plastic bags from newspaper hawkers. Greensense president, Roy Tam, estimates that more than 900,000 thousand plastic items such as these end up in landfills every day.

Green tax call for `City of Waste'
Andrea Chiu
Hong Kong Standard
Monday, February 27, 2006

Over the years, Hong Kong has been given many names, ranging from "Pearl of the Orient" to "World City." The Green Sense group added a new one to the list Sunday: "City of Waste."

The group decided on the new moniker after carrying out a survey on plastic bag distribution with newspaper purchases in the territory.

For three months, the group observed 145 newspaper vendors across the territory, including major retailers 7-Eleven and Circle K.

Of the 435 newspaper purchases witnessed, 91 percent of transactions included a free plastic bag, while 64 percent of them came with a free packet of tissue paper.

From just newspaper purchases alone, the group estimated Hong Kong uses 27 million plastic bags each month - enough to cover Victoria Park 18.7 times if the bags were laid out flat, side by side. Local vendors also give away 20 million packets of tissue paper with newspapers each month.

The wasteful habit is uniquely Hong Kong, said Green Sense president Roy Tam.

The organization compared local newspaper distribution with 25 other major cities in Europe, North America and other parts of Asia. It found only Hong Kong vendors distribute plastic bags so freely.

In his budget speech Wednesday, Financial Secretary Henry Tang pledged to impose green taxes to promote the reduction of plastic bags' use.

But Tam is skeptical that such legislation will be tabled soon.

"Mr Tang raised the idea of a green tax in last year's budget. One year later, nothing has been implemented," he said. Last year, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao said plastic bags would be one of the first products to be charged when the tax was implemented by next year.

The idea of a green tax is an attempt by the government to slow down the filling up of land fills which, at the current waste disposal rate, will be full within six years.

Tam suggested that the government adopt a tax of HK$1 per plastic bag. He said a lower tax would not make a difference.

To prove his point, he cited Ireland where plastic bag consumption was reduced by half after the government there implemented a tax equivalent to about HK$1 a bag.

But Legislative Council environmental affairs panel chairwoman Choy So-Yuk said Ireland's scheme cannot be duplicated in Hong Kong.

"It wouldn't work in Hong Kong because we are so close to China and people can smuggle in plastic bags so easily," she said.

Choy said she supported Tang's proposal to make consumers pay for their plastic bags at supermarkets instead of getting them for free.

She said she also supports a users- pay scheme, under which people would be charged for every bag of garbage they throw out.

Tam said people and vendors should take the lead in making Hong Kong a less wasteful environment.

"We urge the citizens to try not to ask vendors for plastic bags and tissue paper," he said.

Green groups have estimated that Hong Kong uses 24 million plastic bags a day, which amount to about nine billion plastic bags a year.

New emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles
Hong Kong Standard
Andrea Chiu
Tuesday, February 28, 2006

The Environmental Protection Department plans to tighten emission standards for heavy-duty vehicles in tandem with the European Union in an attempt to reduce staggering roadside emission levels.

Addressing a poorly attended Legislative Council environmental affairs panel meeting, deputy director Roy Tang said Monday the department wants to implement Euro IV emission standards for newly registered vehicles over 3.5 tonnes by October, when they will be enforced in Europe.

A vehicle meeting the Euro IV standards will emit 30 percent less nitrogen oxides and 80 percent less particulates than that meeting the current Euro III standards.

Tang estimated that there are roughly 18,700 pre-Euro heavy-duty vehicles on the road, 1,700 of which are buses.

"Motor vehicles are our major source of roadside air pollution," he said.

By January 2007, he said, the government will introduce Euro III emission standards for newly registered motorcycles - which have a different set of limits.

Meeting the new standards will means emissions of some harmful pollutants will be cut by up to 90 percent when compared with the current levels. But legislator Lee Wing-tat said the government is not moving quick enough to improve the air quality.

While supporting the new standards, Lee questioned why the government was slow to push the use of hybrid vehicles in the territory, noting that the technology had proven to be commercially viable in other parts of the world.

However, Tang pointed out that the government had purchased five hybrids for its fleet as part of a trial scheme.

Earlier this month, Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Sarah Liao said the first seven months of the two-year scheme showed fuel consumption for the hybrid sedans was about half of that for gasoline-fueled sedans of the same class.

"The emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides of these five hybrid sedans are about 40 percent less than those from petrol sedans of the same class complying with the Euro IV standard," Liao said.

"These two key pollutants are responsible for the photochemical smog affecting Hong Kong in recent years."

Liao added that once there were more consumer choices and hybrids became more cost-effective, the government would encourage Hong Kong drivers to use them.

Monday, the government said Japanese carmakers export hybrids mostly to the United States. But green group Clear the Air said that the government should not be focusing on private cars.

"Hybrid cars will not significantly reduce air pollution in Hong Kong, but introducing hybrid buses will," said Annelise Connell, chairwoman of the group.

She said Hong Kong bus companies should follow London's lead and use hybrid buses.

A spokeswoman for Citybus said while the company is monitoring the use of hybrid buses in Europe, it has no timeline for acquiring some for its own trial.

Major stores to cut plastic bags by 50m this year
Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Hong Kong's two leading supermarket chains have taken swift action to cut plastic bag distribution after the financial secretary's proposal last week to levy a users-pay tax in the long term.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang said in his budget speech the government hopes to legislate against shops providing free plastic bags and will introduce a tax to deter consumption.

Supermarket giants Wellcome and ParknShop have since announced voluntary initiatives that, if combined, could save more than 50 million plastic bags this year.

Hong Kongers use 12 million plastic bags every day, the Environmental Protection Department said, and 25 percent of that come from major supermarkets.

Wellcome Tuesday signed a voluntary agreement with the department, pledging to reduce its distribution of plastic bags by 15 percent - or about 40 million bags this year.

"Only a fraction of plastic bags in Hong Kong comes from supermarkets, but we do accept we are the most visible industry," Wellcome director of marketing and development Mark Garwood said. "If we have consumers, businesses and government on our side, the reduction will happen.

"We have confidence we will not only meet, but surpass, the 15 percent goal. Our reputation is at stake if we don't achieve it."

The chain, which has some 250 stores in Hong Kong, plans to raise public awareness by training checkout staff to ask customers if they need plastic bags, placing reminders at the cashier and throughout stores, and continuing special discount initiatives such as the "Bring Your Own Bag" campaign.

Permanent Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works Keith Kwok, who signed the agreement on behalf of the government, commended Wellcome, which had already reduced bag distribution by 10 percent last year.

As for a plastic bag tax, Kwok said it would "need more discussion," but pointed out that Taiwan's decision to implement a plastic bag tax in 2002 had spurred "fast action" and brought about "long-term effects."

Wellcome's newly appointed chief executive, Alex Tay, said he was pleased with the government's decision to allow for voluntary agreements before deciding on whether it would push ahead with legislation. Having previously worked for Wellcome in Taiwan, Tay said he felt the government was "going about this the right way."

He said: "Different regions have different cultures. The government needs to ascertain first which strategy best suits Hong Kong, and public education is always the better way."

While he declined to delve into specifics, Tay said Taiwan's plastic bag tax has not been entirely successful, and many markets there continue to illegally distribute the bags.

Wellcome's pledge comes just days after ParknShop announced it would save 12 million plastic bags this year through the sale of environment-friendly shopping bags and other initiatives to cut consumption.

But according to green group Friends of the Earth, that number would only mean a 4 percent reduction from the 750,000 plastic bags ParknShop distributes everyday.

"When it comes to environmental initiatives, Wellcome is always more aggressive than ParknShop," said Michelle Au, the group's environmental affairs officer.

Still, Au said Wellcome's 15 percent pledge is low, pointing out that when the Australian government introduced a voluntary scheme in 2002, plastic bag consumption was cut by 25 percent in the first year alone.

Au said the green group is in favor of a compulsory fee of between 50 HK cents and HK$1 per plastic bag. Any lower, she said, would not be enough to deter consumers.

RTHK news:
Proposed plastic bag tax be some time off - Liao (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/elocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060304&56&292307)

--It should be implied ASAP!!! :speech:

Titans do battle over power and its supply
Chester Yung
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Underlying the negotiations over a new scheme of control for the power companies is the likelihood that dirtier air will scare off overseas investors.

Insisting it is aware of this threat, the SAR administration has said it intends to plant more green regulations in the future agreement.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang said in his maiden policy address last October: "In recent years, the extent of air pollution in Hong Kong has aroused grave concerns in the community.

"We must take vigorous measures to make sustained improvement to air quality," he said, asserting that all new major government policies would be subject to "environmental protection scrutiny."

Addressing a seminar on the future of the electricity market in Hong Kong last week, Deepak Sharma, director of the Energy Planning Policy Program at the University of Technology, Sydney, described the current negotiations with the power companies as being obscured by "ideological" issues.

"It is essential to be clear about the real objective of reform," Sharma said.

Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Stephen Ip has insisted repeatedly that the energy policy objectives are clear, driven mainly by two goals: to ensure that the public continues to enjoy reliable, safe and efficient supply of energy at reasonable prices; and to minimize the environmental impact effects of the production and use of energy.

How will the scheme reconcile these two objectives inherently in conflict?

At the seminar last Monday - one of the the last public forums on the issue before the completion of the government's consultation by the end of the month - Louis Chiam, an energy expert at Australian law firm Mallesons Stephen Jaques, argued one key principle of regulation is "effectiveness."

He said: "Hong Kong has good objectives but there are inherent tensions. How are they reconciled?"

Hinting that the government itself might still be scrounging for an answer, Deputy Secretary for Economic Development and Labour Howard Lee, also at the seminar, said the government will leave this question to public consultation.

This apparent lack of firm objectives has drawn much criticism from the power companies.

They say that uncertainties affect their long-term investment plans and undercut their ability to continue a reliable flow of electricity.

The proposed regulatory framework - which suggests lowering the permitted rates of return of the power companies from between 13.5 percent and 15 percent to between 7 percent and 11 percent - aims to improve air quality by offering new inducements and imposing penalties on the power companies based on their success in meeting emission-reduction requirements and using more renewable energy.

The proposal also suggests laying the groundwork for opening up the electricity market to new entrants.

But Sylvia Chan, a Macquarie Securities utilities strategist, argued that the government's proposals are insufficient to encourage development by any players other than the current duopoly of renewable sources of energy.

"The differential return provided for emission reduction and renewable projects would skew the utilities incentives," Chan said.

That is ultimately what it comes down to: Who is going to pay for the cleaner air? The power companies' shareholders or consumers?

Larry Chow, director of the Hong Kong Energy Studies Centre at Baptist University, said the power companies will not hesitate to improve air quality "if they can transfer the increased cost to the consumer."

Chow said: "The current situation is that the government is trying to stop the companies from doing this, yet for the profit-making power companies, they don't want their shareholders to bear that cost.

"They are doing business."

The government's consultation paper proposes that the administation have the final say on tariff adjustments and electrical generation development plans to ensure that they are "cost- justified, reasonable and affordable to consume."

What exactly this means is one of the major issues attracting much flak along the frontlines of this particular war.

Inevitably, this battle will last longer than the consultation period, and might get even more heated if air pollution gets worse.

News from RTHK:
Very high levels of air pollution recorded over much of Hong Kong 2006-03-17 HKT 06:51

Very high levels of air pollution have been recorded over much of Hong Kong. Some of the worst affected areas are Tung Chung and Yuen Long where readings of around 140 have been recorded on the government's air pollution index.


High air pollution levels in HK 2006-03-17 HKT 13:02

The territory has continued to be plagued by high levels of air pollution. The Air Pollution Index for Yuen Long was over 140 at one stage. A Principal Environmental Protection officer, Raymond Leung expects the situation to improve this afternoon.

Hong Kong on high alert over air pollution
Fri Mar 17, 12:06 PM ET

HONG KONG (AFP) - Hong Kong issued a health warning as air pollution reached high levels, with the southern Chinese city cloaked in dense smog.

A spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Department said calm air had trapped pollutants from both Hong Kong and China's heavily industrialized neighbouring Pearl River Delta.

The pollution index in some areas reached as high as 133 on a 1-200 scale, officials said, and the government advised people with heart or respiratory illnesses to avoid outdoor activities.

Friends of the Earth Hong Kong estimates that some 80 percent of the pollution drifts in from the Pearl River Delta, China's economic powerhouse.

It blames Hong Kong-based companies that own factories in China as well as the government of southern China's Guangdong province for doing little to improve matters.

RTHK News:
Tour guides say poor air quality turning people away from HK 2006-03-19 HKT 12:06

Many tour guides who have responded to a survey on air pollution have said they've heard a large number of tourists complaining about Hong Kong's poor air quality. The environmental group, Friends of the Earth, said 10 percent of the 130 tour guides it had interviewed also said they'd seen tourists falling sick because of the air pollution. The group's assistant director, Edwin Lau, said a number of the visitors had vowed not to return to Hong Kong unless the air quality here improves significantly. In reply, the Tourism Board agreed that air pollution could affect tourists' impressions of Hong Kong, but added that the problem wasn't a major item of complaints from tourists. Its executive director, Clara Chong, said the board received only a couple of complaints against air pollution each year.

The 10-point plan

1 Less sulfur in fuels

2 A ban on ships using highly polluting bunker fuels

3 Conversion to alternative fuels, including LPG in all commercial vehicles

4 Scrap plans for more roads in areas like Central

5 More railways instead of roads; trolley buses instead of motor buses

6 Energy production using cleaner fuels

7 Move pollution sources from densely populated areas

8 Action by business interests to use cleaner fuels in Pearl River Delta factories

9 The government must stop pretending it is doing enough and that it would not be cost-effective to clean up the air

10 Consider how we will be able to comply with new WHO air quality guidelines


good plan, but the most important is that the industry in the Pearl Delta River would be cleaner
__________________

Study to look at effects of pollution on dolphins
AP
Monday, March 20, 2006

Scientists have begun a two-year study of Chinese white dolphins that involves shooting the rare mammals with a crossbow and darts that retrieve tiny samples of skin and blubber that are analyzed for the effects of pollution, the officials said Sunday.

The government study also seeks to determine how many of the creatures - also known as Indo- Pacific humpback dolphins - are swimming in Hong Kong's waters, said Joseph Sham, a senior marine conservation officer. The government estimates that about 200 dolphins live in the area.

The mammals, which are often bubblegum pink, also swim in coastal waters and estuaries in the Indian and western Pacific oceans - from South Africa in the west, to China's coast and northern Australia in the east.

Hong Kong's waters are risky for the dolphins because the seas are polluted and are part of busy shipping lanes. Dead dolphins frequently wash up on beaches.

Until recently, most of the tissue samples were taken from dead dolphins by the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department, a government statement said.

But researchers in the new study are using crossbows that shoot biopsy darts that take small cores of skin and blubber which should indicate how pollution is contaminating the dolphins, Sham said.

Strict restrictions will be placed on scientists shooting the dolphins, Sham said. They will not be able to target a dolphin parent that is caring for its young, he added.

Experts hope to collect 30 samples in the next two years, the statement said. The results will help experts draw up an environmental risk assessment for the creatures, it said.

EPD committed to improving air quality
Monday, March 20, 2006
Government Press Release

With the support of the community, the Government is determined to achieve the emission targets agreed with Guangdong for 2010, through local emission reduction measures and co-operation with Guangdong.

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) said today (March 20) that the Chief Executive, in his Policy Address, had made it clear that Hong Kong, as Asia's world city, could not tolerate foul air.

"Air quality is a serious issue not only for Hong Kong but the whole Pearl River Delta (PRD), given the rapid growth in urbanisation and industrial activities and the associated air pollution in the region," he said.

"Whenever the weather is calm, air pollutants from Hong Kong and the PRD region are trapped close to the ground, resulting in high air pollution levels in Hong Kong and other cities in the region," he added while explaining the cause of the air pollution incident in the past couple of days.

To improve air quality, the Hong Kong and Guangdong governments have agreed, by the year 2010, to reduce emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), respirable suspended particulates (RSP) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) respectively by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55% from 1997 emission levels.

"The department has already made good progress in cutting the emissions of NOx, RSP and VOC. For SO2, however, much of the effort has been impaired by the increase in emissions by the power plants. The current SO2 emission is 47% higher than the 1997 level," he added.

Electricity generation is the biggest source of air pollution in Hong Kong accounting for 92% of the SO2 and half of the NOx and RSP emissions.

The spokesman said the department had asked the power companies to accelerate the timing of emission reduction projects, increase the use of ultra-low sulphur coal and use natural gas for power generation as much as possible.

"At the same time, we will progressively tighten the emission caps on the power companies to ensure that the 2010 emission reduction targets are met. We also ask power companies to use more renewable energy for electricity generation and to implement demand side management measures to minimise electricity consumption," he said.

"For the new Scheme of Control, the Government has proposed to link the permitted rate of return on all fixed assets of the power companies to their achievement of the emission caps. This will provide the necessary economic incentive for power companies to reduce emissions," he added.

"In the years to come, we are pursuing additional measures to achieve the 2010 emission reduction targets. We are introducing Euro IV emission standards to newly registered vehicles, and a scheme to control volatile organic compounds emissions from various products," he said.

Noting that education and public participation were very important for the successful control of air pollution, the spokesman said the department would continue to appeal to drivers to exercise self-discipline by switching off idling engines and had instructed all government drivers to do so.

"Also, we have been actively educating the public on energy saving by raising the air-conditioned room temperate from 22.5 degrees Celsius to 25.5 degrees Celsius and the Government will cut electricity consumption of its office buildings by 1.5% in 2006," he said.

On the regional front, the department is co-operating with the Guangdong Government on a plan to meet the emission targets.

For the power generation industry in Guangdong, four new liquefied natural gas power plants are expected to be commissioned in phases which will substantially reduce the reliance on the polluting fuel oil and coal, and all major coal-fired power plants in Guangdong Province will be equipped with flue gas desulphurisation by end 2007. On motor vehicles, the Guangdong Provincial Government will strive to advance the implementation of National III motor vehicle emission standards (on a par with Euro III ones) in the PRD cities.

"Hong Kong and Guangdong will continue to strengthen technical exchanges, especially on continuous emissions monitoring of stationary pollution sources and commissioning studies on regional air pollution. A joint air quality monitoring station network has been set up which reports on the Regional Air Quality Index to the public on a daily basis," the spokesman said.

SAR climbs the pollution ranks
Leslie Kwoh
Hong Kong Standard
Friday, March 24, 2006

The bad news - Hong Kong is one of the world's most polluted cities. The not-so-new news - most of the pollutants are wafting across the border from the mainland.

That is the preliminary verdict of a group of Hong Kong Polytechnic University scientists at the official launch Thursday of the university's 10-year air pollution monitoring partnership program in conjunction with the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"What surprised us is that when we compared pollution in Hong Kong on a normal day, it was always higher than other cities like Taipei, Paris and Washington," said Janet Nichol, university associate professor of land surveying and geo-informatics.

But she was quick to add that the SAR's pollution was "not always higher than Beijing's."

Nichol and her team of experts, who have been monitoring the level of aerosols, or pollutant particulates, in the air in Hong Kong and the mainland since last October, are convinced the territory's pollution woes are the product of factories located across the border, not from cars or other local sources.

"Green groups have been saying that 80 percent of our pollution comes from the mainland, and our observations point strongly to that," Nichol said.

An eight-day experiment conducted over the Lunar New Year holidays showed a drastic drop in pollution levels, she said - evidence that the pollution had been coming from mainland factories which were closed during that period.

Under its agreement with NASA, the university receives daily satellite images of China, which indicate pollution levels through varying shades of gray. Images usually show that much of China, south of Beijing and extending about three kilometers into the sea, is blanketed under a thick sheet of murky gray, Nichol said.

Nichol and her team also use a HK$250,000 device called a sun- photometer, placed on the roof of the university library, to measure the amount of aerosols in the atmosphere during daylight hours. The results are then sent to NASA's Aerosol Robotic Network, which includes about 150 other cities and sites around the world.

But Nichol admitted she did not know whether the results will be used by the Environmental Protection Department, which she said is using an "outdated" and "not accurate" approach. She said the government's air pollution index is not sensitive enough, but could be improved if combined with data from satellite images such as NASA's.

Green group Friends of the Earth, which has long called for a review of the index, said Hong Kong's current system lags behind other countries in that it measures only coarse particulates, not the finer particulates that are more easily inhaled into the lungs.

"It's good news that academics are very concerned about air pollution and are setting up scientific hardware," said group assistant director Edwin Lau. "I hope the government is open-minded and understands that this information is scientific information.

"It's neutral and not biased toward any side."

Yes its bad. When I was there just couple weeks ago I couldn't even see across the harbour.

RTHK news:
Green Peace protesters barge into CLP power plant 2006-03-26 HKT 18:23

About twenty Green Peace activists have barged into the CLP's Castle Peak power plant to protest against coal-fired power generation. They hammered one hundred and six crosses into the ash lagoon at the plant. They said the action symbolised the number of years that the company had been burning coal and poisoning public health. They want the company to come up with a timetable to phase out its coal burning operations in a bid to reduce emission.


Related news in Chinese, also from RTHK:
綠色和平抗議中電燃煤污染空氣 (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/clocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060326&55&297560)

中電指已採用低排放燃料減低污染 (http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/clocal/rthk_newsframe.htm?20060326&55&297573)

Greenpeace calls on Hong Kong power firm to end coal use

HONG KONG, March 26, 2006 (AFP) - Environmentalists launched a campaign Sunday to end Hong Kong's reliance on coal-sourced power which it blames for soaring pollution that they say is threatening the city's health and tourism industry.

Greenpeace activists hammered wooden crosses into the shallows of a lagoon where China Light and Power (CLP) dumps waste from its coal-fired Castle Peak power station.

They erected 106 crosses, one for every year coal has been used to produce power in the city, the organisation said in a statement.

"CLP has been raking in dirty profit for over a hundred years with the real price for pollution paid by us all," Greenpeace pollution campaigner Chow Sze-chung said in a statement after the early morning protest.

CLP is one of only two power generating firms in Hong Kong, along with Hong Kong Electric, both of which use a combination of coal and gas to fire their power stations.

The two companies are being targeted by environmentalists as the pollution problems of this city of almost seven million people grows.

A report of a survey of tour guides by green group Friends of the Earth Hong Kong last week found half of overseas tourists to the city had complained of choking pollution and 10 percent had suffered smog-related illnesses.

The rising pollution levels are blamed mostly on the power stations and old vehicles on Hong Kong's congested roads belching untreated fumes into the air.

Environmentalists say the pollution problem has more than doubled in the past three years.

A Friends of the Earth study found Hong Kong Airport recorded one day of smog-related poor visibility in every 3.5 days last year, up from one in eight in 2002.

LCQ17 : Air pollutants emitted from CLP Power's coal-fired generating units
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Government Press Release

Following is a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr Sarah Liao, at the Legislative Council meeting today (March 29) :

Question:

It is learnt that in order to increase the generation of electricity for sale to the Mainland, CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power) has put into operation all the coal-fired generating units in the Castle Peak Power Station. Research findings have indicated that this power station is the main source of air pollutants for districts in New Territories West such as Tung Chung and Tuen Mun. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has assessed the implications, on the annual environmental costs and health care expenditure of Hong Kong, of air pollutants and greenhouse gases emitted from CLP Power's coal-fired generating units in the territory in the course of generation of electricity for sale to the Guangdong Province; if so, of the outcome of the assessment;

(b) whether it has assessed the implications on the annual environmental costs and health care expenditure of Hong Kong if the electricity sold to the Guangdong Province is generated in the Mainland rather than in Hong Kong as is currently the case; if so, of the outcome of the assessment; and

(c) how the statistics on residents in New Territories West who suffer from respiratory illnesses compare with those in Hong Kong as a whole?

Reply:

Madam President,

CLP Power's export of 3.1 billion kWh of electricity to the Mainland in 2004 has resulted in the emission of some 11,800 tonnes of sulphur dioxide, 6,100 tonnes of nitrogen oxide and 290 tonnes of respirable suspended particulates, which accounted for 12%, 7% and 4% of the total emission of the respective pollutants in Hong Kong in 2004. Owing to the emission of 2.7 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, the emission of greenhouse gases represented 6% of their total emission in Hong Kong. If CLP Power ceases to export electricity to the Mainland, it will reduce local emissions immediately, thus helping Hong Kong to meet the 2010 emission reduction targets and reduce air pollution.

CLP Power's electricity export to the Mainland only accounts for 1% to 2% of the total generating capacity of the Guangdong Province. The Guangdong Provincial Government is progressively increasing the total electricity generating capacity for consumption by the Guangdong Province from 33,000 MW in 2000 to 64,000 MW in 2010. Meanwhile, they are installing flue gas desulphurization units for coal-fired and oil-fired generating units of over 125 MW, and have ceased planning for new coal-fired and oil-fired power stations in the Pearl River Delta. All this will significantly reduce emissions. Therefore, it will not have any environmental impact on Hong Kong even if CLP Power's electricity supply to the Mainland is replaced by that generated by the power plants in the Guangdong Province.

The environmental costs and health care expenditure attributable to air pollution are indirect and long-term. According to a study commissioned by the Environmental Protection Department and conducted by the University of Hong Kong and Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2002, using the air quality and population data for 2000, the economic losses (including consultation and hospitalization fees and productivity loss incurred) caused by respiratory and cardiovascular diseases possibly related to air pollution may total $1.7 billion each year. However, the existing data and information are insufficient for us to make a scientifically accurate assessment of the impact on health care expenditure as a result of electricity export to the Mainland by individual power companies.

The respective numbers of patients (as per one thousand population) of three related disease groups (i.e. asthma/COPD, pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infection) utilizing in and day patient services in New Territories West and the whole of Hong Kong are shown in the following table :

Upper Respiratory
District Asthma/COPD Pneumonia Tract Infection
******** *********** ********* ****************
Yuen Long 1.7 3.0 2.6
Tuen Mun 1.6 2.7 2.7
Hong Kong 2.3 3.6 2.7

From news.gov.hk:
Housing report outlines 'green' initiatives (http://news.gov.hk/en/category/healthandcommunity/060401/html/060401en05002.htm)

HK told to clean up its act in delta
Factory owners have a duty to reduce pollution, says business council chief
4 April 2006
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong has "a duty and an opportunity" to reduce the impact on the environment from its factories in the Pearl River Delta, business council chairman Victor Fung Kwok-king said.

"Hong Kong owns and operates over 70,000 factories in the Pearl River Delta, so it's only natural for Hong Kong and the PRD to be concerned about air pollution," he said after a meeting of the Greater Pearl River Delta Business Council.

"Businesses need to be more proactive and push for better education on producing more efficiently to minimise the impact on the environment. This is something that must be done."

Mr Fung has been reappointed as the council's chairman for another two years.

To tackle the pollution issue, the council has set up a sustainable development subgroup headed by Executive Councillor Cheng Yiu-tong to oversee its work in this area.

It will be joined by four other specialised subgroups: the cross-boundary passenger and cargo flow subgroup led by lawmaker Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen; the joint investment and trade promotion subgroup under Jardines managing director Anthony Nightingale; the technology, education and human resources subgroup under former Central Policy Unit chief Edgar Cheng Wai-kin; and the services industry development subgroup under former Law Society president Simon Ip Shing-hing.

Mr Fung said Hong Kong's services sector needed to look beyond what the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement with the mainland offered and explore ways to better complement Guangdong's development of carmaking and other heavy industries.

Two task groups have also been formed to look specifically at this industrial restructuring of Guangdong and its impact on Hong Kong and at the development of the western Pearl River Delta and Hong Kong.

The groups will be convened by Trade Development Council executive director Frederick Lam Tin-fuk and Orient Overseas (International) chairman Tung Chee-chen respectively.

The new bodies' work goes far beyond the scope of the council's original mandate - a reflection of the impact of Guangdong's rapid growth and the westward industrialisation of the Pearl River Delta on Hong Kong's evolving economy.

When it was set up in March 2004, the council's principal stated goal was forging investment and business ties between Guangdong and Hong Kong companies.

Shops put a brake on plastic bags
Winnie Chong
Hong Kong Standard
Thursday, April 06, 2006

More than 20 young cyclists rode through the busy streets of Kowloon Wednesday to ask shops to participate in Hong Kong's first No Plastic Bag Day on April 15.

Members of environmental organization Green Student Council were joined by other cyclists for the morning ride from Tsim Sha Tsui's landmark Clock Tower to Mong Kok and back.

Along the way they played a recorded message on a speaker to promote No Plastic Bag Day, and invited shop owners to join.

Shops participating will not offer free plastic bags to customers for the day. Instead, shoppers will have to pay 50 cents for each bag. Proceeds from the event will go to Oxfam Hong Kong.

Green Student Council chairman Angus Ho said the event addressed concern over massive overuse of plastic bags in the city.

Hong Kong consumes 33 million plastic bags - 5 per resident - every day. Australia, with 20 million people, uses a quarter of that number of bags a day, and Ireland, which introduced a bag levy in 2002, uses a third.

By Wednesday, 1,200 supermarkets and retail chains had agreed to join the day, including leading supermarkets ParknShop, Wellcome, China Resources Vanguard (Hong Kong), Maxim's Cake shop and Sa Sa.

Ho said that the number is very encouraging.

No Plastic Bags Day will also serve as a pilot scheme for the government, the public, businesses and nongovernment organizations to work together to reduce the use of plastic bags, Ho said.

He believed it was important to let the public experience having to pay for plastic bags. "People can experience having to pay for the waste they produce, before the government implements a plastic bag tax," Ho said.

Housewife Yeung Siu-fun, 50, who bring her own bags when going shopping, supports the event.

"It can help reduce bag use as people will find it is often unnecessary for them to use bags," she said.

Tsuen Wan convenience store worker Mary Pang said her colleagues also want to promote a reduction in plastic bag use and they are going to propose placing placards bearing the message next to the cashier and newspaper racks.

"Not to put newspapers in a plastic bag can not only help our company cut costs, but reduce our workload too," Pang said.

Speedy action sought on pollution
International chamber fears poor air may deter top expats from moving to city
6 April 2006
South China Morning Post

Hong Kong's international business community is urging the government to act quickly to tackle air pollution before conditions deteriorate further and deter top expatriate professionals from moving to the city.

The International Business Chamber, which represents overseas chambers of commerce in Hong Kong, is hopeful that Chief Secretary Rafael Hui Si-yan will heed the community's increasing alarm over the impact of smoggy conditions when they meet on April 20.

The chamber holds regular meetings with the government through the International Business Committee chaired by the chief secretary.

"We are going to tell the government that we are no longer attractive to professionals because they do not want their children to live in Hong Kong," chairman of the Danish Chamber of Commerce, Jens-Erik Olsen, said.

"Some may say there must be people who will work in Hong Kong, but we don't want the second best, we want the best."

A survey on expatriate living conditions released this week by international human resources group ECA International suggested that Hong Kong was losing out to its rivals in attracting top talent because of poor air quality.

Mr Olsen, who also speaks for the International Business Chamber on air quality, expressed frustration that Hong Kong's air pollution was worsening despite talks being held with the government on the issue for years. He said the chamber wanted to explore ways for businesses to help rectify the situation.

Steve Marcopoto, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, said he believed a first step in the right direction would be for Hong Kong and Guangdong to determine who is to blame for Hong Kong's poor air quality.

"Hong Kong will keep blaming Guangdong and Guangdong will point the finger at Hong Kong factories," Mr Marcopoto said. "The air pollution here is definitely worse than it was 10 years ago."

In addition to setting up a special task force to examine how to improve the environment, the American chamber will liaise with its sister chamber in Guangdong to assess the issue.

Chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce Deborah Biber said the growing number of Hong Kong-owned factories operating in the Pearl River Delta, as well as the community at large, needed to take action.

"Because of the power situation on the mainland, every plant needs to have its own power generator and they are burning coal," she said.

Ms Biber said the public could help by switching off idling car engines and reducing consumption of air conditioning to save power.

Mr Olsen urged the government to explore measures to prevent cross-border trucks entering Hong Kong with dirty diesel.

http://www.globalphotos.org/hongkong/20050922/SEPT22-S03-018.jpg

Make No Plastic Bag Day a weekly event, urges group
Winnie Chong
Hong Kong Standard
Tuesday, April 18, 2006

Environmental activists hope to capitalize on the success of last week's No Plastic Bag Day by making it a weekly event.

The event's organizer, Green Student Council, reported a 70 percent reduction in the use of plastic bags during last Saturday's campaign in which local shoppers were urged to bring their own bags or pay 50 HK cents for every bag requested, the money going to Oxfam.

Council chairman Angus Ho Hon- wai said the results were very encouraging as an initial survey showed that 62 percent of shoppers supported the campaign by bringing their own bags.

"But, just one No Plastic Bag Day won't be enough to change the people's habit of using plastic bags," Ho said Monday. "It takes a long time to change the way we behave, sometimes 10 or even 20 years."

To educate the people and to maintain the momentum, Ho said the council would like to see a No Plastic Bag Day being held once a month, or even weekly. It would also like to launch an educational campaign, though the latter will require money, possibly by way of government funding.

He renewed the call for a tax on plastic bags, saying more than 80 percent of the public supported such a move. The figure, he said, came from council surveys over the past three years.

Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen last May proposed a plastic bag tax and, in his February budget speech, indicated that such a tax could be introduced next year. Ho suggested that the government impose a bag levy of between 50 cents and HK$1 which, he felt, would be an "effective deterrent" against the use of plastic bags.

Ho also hoped the government will use the levy to set up an environmental conservation fund to encourage plastic bag manufacturers to use degradable technology in producing plastic bags. However, Hong Kong Plastic Bags Manufacturers' Association executive vice chairman Ricky Wong Wai-ki warned that a reduction in the use of plastic bags by shops could actually increase the use of plastic elsewhere.

He referred to Ireland which introduced a bag levy in 2003. Though the use of plastic bags fell by more than 80 percent, total consumption of plastic increased by about 30 percent as people changed to other packaging material such as foam boxes and plastic wraps.

"Environmental activists and the government should not be unfair to the plastic bag industry," Wong said.

"I fear that the reduction of plastic bag use could result in the increasing use