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Letter to the Editor of SCMP dated 3 November 2006 - Response to a letter by Mr Bill Barron, Mr Alexis Lau and Mr Anthony Hedley on visibility and air pollution (30 October 2006).
I refer to the letter of October 30, 2006 on visibility and air pollution.
Indeed the level of particulates is a factor affecting the visibility. However as Bill Barron and Alexis Lau have accepted, there are other causes like fog and mist which can lead to poor visibility occasionally. We therefore have to rely on objective and scientific measurement of concentrations of the relevant air pollutants in assessing air pollution instead of using visibility as the indicator.
Health impact of air pollution is one of the key areas of study in the development of strategies to tackle air pollution. The Environmental Protection Department has supported and funded many studies conducted locally on health effects of air pollution; as such findings are useful to the Government to bring forward new initiatives to combat air pollution. A number of these local reports are available on the website of the Department.
More specifically on particulates, the level of its concentration is under regular monitoring and the Government is committed to taking concrete action to reduce particulates emitted from local power plants, vehicles and other sources. In his Policy Address just delivered on October 11, the Chief Executive reiterated his commitment to focus on the protection of the environment in the negotiation with the power companies over their new Scheme of Control. On vehicular emission control, he announced a $3.2 billion programme to provide incentives for the early replacement of pre-Euro and Euro I commercial diesel vehicles to Euro IV models. The Policy Address also included an initiative to encourage the use of environmentally friendly private cars through reduction in their First Registration Tax, subject to a cap of $50,000 per vehicle. Upon completion of the programme, it is estimated that the emission of respirable suspended particulates in Hong Kong will be reduced by 18%.
Reduction in visibility is a region wide phenomenon. It is just essential that we work closely with the Mainland to improve the air quality. On this, the Hong Kong Government and Guangdong Provincial Government have been working closely to implement a Regional Air Quality Management Plan which aims at achieving emission reduction targets by 2010. The target reduction of respirable suspended particulates is pitched at 55% when compared with the level of emission in 1997. And so far our local achievement is a reduction of 28% in respirable suspended particulates in 2004 when compared with the level in 1997.
I would like to take the opportunity of making some general comments on your editorial of October 31 on climate change. The Central Government has extended the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol to cover Hong Kong. Although Hong Kong is not required to meet any specific emission reduction targets, we have been putting a lot of efforts in promoting renewable energy and cleaner fuels for power generation and transport locally. Hong Kong is a very small emitter of greenhouse gases on a global scale (about 0.2%). Our greenhouse gas emission per capita is about 6.4 tonnes in 2004, which compared favourably with the levels in USA (about 24 tonnes), Australia (about 27 tonnes), South Korea (about 12 tonnes), Japan (about 10 tonnes) and Singapore (about 8 tonnes). Looking forward, we would continue our efforts in reducing our greenhouse gas emissions as a member of the global community in the battle against climate change.
Tse Chin-wan
Assistant Director (Air Policy)
for Director of Environmental Protection
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