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Letter to the Editor of the Australia China Connections - Response to an article entitled "Through the Smog" (December 2006 / January 2007 edition)
I note with regret the article "Through the Smog" published in the December/January 2007 edition which provides nothing but misconception to your readers.
The author, quoting Ms. Christine Loh, said the SAR Government was "mired in a culture of denial". The reality is that we have acknowledged, time and again, that improving air quality tops the Government’s agenda.
The Chief Executive, Mr. Donald Tsang, has clearly reaffirmed our commitment in his Policy Address of 2006 that "Hong Kong deserves and can afford a better living environment", and "[there] exists a strong community consensus on the pressing need to take decisive measures to improve air quality".
The article alleges that there is a "desperate attempt by the government not to make a link between pollution and health". This is flying in the face of comments made by the Secretary for the Environment, Transport and Works, Dr. Sarah Liao, in May 2006 at a meeting of the Legislative Council. Dr Liao spoke on a health study commissioned by the Government and conducted by two local universities in 2002 which suggested a correlation relation between respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and air pollution.
The article went on to say that Hong Kong's air standards "are set lower than World Health Organization recommendations". The article did not care to inform readers that no advanced economy in the world , and for that matter including Australia, has fully adopted the WHO guidelines as their local air quality standards. The United Kingdom, for example, indicated in April 2006 that it would not be practical to achieve the WHO air quality guidelines before 2050. The United States has also completed its review on air quality standards in September 2006 and decided to adopt standards far less stringent than those recommended by WHO between now and 2020. This is only understandable as WHO clearly points out that individual countries should set their respective air quality standards in the light of local circumstances .
Indeed, in view of the recently revised guidelines published by the WHO, the SAR Government has already pledged to commission a comprehensive study to review our existing standards and to identify feasible medium and long-term strategies to control air pollution. This again demonstrates that the Government is taking the problem seriously.
Apart from this coming review, the Government has a number of concrete new measures in the pipelines, such as -
• Offering $3.2 billion grant to replace polluting diesel commercial vehicles with latest Euro IV models
• Reducing the First Registration Tax for environment friendly cars by 30%
• Implementing a new legislation to control VOC contents in various consumer products, paints and inks
• Introducing mandatory energy efficiency labels
• Consulting the public on legislation to ban idling vehicles
• Requiring bus companies to use environment friendly buses
• Tightening the emissions caps on power plants
• Linking the rate of return of power companies to their performance in meeting the emissions caps
I am sure you can see that not all of these measures would be equally popular and acceptable to all interests. Nonetheless, the Government is convinced that there is a strong community consensus to bring about decisive measures to reduce pollution. We are determined to press ahead.
We are glad that your article has acknowledged the opportunities available to Australian businesses in many environmental solutions, e.g. pollution control from coal-fired power plants, LPG conversions in vehicles, and clean coal technologies. The recognition of business opportunities also brings me to the point that there is a lot to be done by the business sector in cleaning the environment. In this regard, the Hong Kong business community must be commended for having taken a step forth in echoing the Government's call for energy saving and adopting cleaner production. Last year, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce launched a voluntary Clean Air Charter campaign. Signatories commit to operate by world class standard in emission control and monitoring, and carry out energy saving and energy audits. The SAR Government has also signed up to the Charter in demonstration of our support for this good cause. The Federation of Hong Kong Industries also launches a scheme entitled "One Factory-One Year-One Environmental" Project Programme, which encourages the adoption of cleaner technologies and resources conservation by manufacturers, many of who operate in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong.
We are confident that such proactive attitude of the local community will help the Government to achieve its bold targets of reducing the key pollutants by 20% to 55% by the year 2010.
C W Tse
Assistant Director (Air Policy)
Environmental Protection Department
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