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Letter to the Editor of Strait Times dated 26 November 2006 - Response to an article entitled "Hong Kong's wake-up call"
I refer to Vince Chong's article on 26 November, entitled as "Hong Kong's wake-up call".
The author has pointed to a number of anecdotes and interviews as evidence of the severity of Hong Kong's air pollution problem. The tone and title of the article will give a wrong impression that the problem is brushed aside in the territory. In fact, the Hong Kong SAR Government has not for a single moment underplayed this issue - improving air quality has always been top of our environmental agenda.
We share much of the concerns expressed in the article, but have serious reservation on some of the more emotional representations that can easily be mistaken for "facts" or science by readers unfamiliar with the subject.
One of them is obviously the statement that "[on] a bad day, the city's air can be found to contain more than one billion suspended particles in a single breath. This is equivalent to smoking eight cigarettes a day." The statement cannot be borne out by science. One billion suspended particulates in one breath would mean breathing in solid balls of dust, an exaggeration insulting anyone with common sense. The author owes your reader an explanation, or an apology, on the assumptions and methodology employed.
Deeply concerned as we are, we cannot substitute emotional conjecture for solid science; and we must tackle the problem with pragmatic measures. Our strategy is to reduce the emissions of pollutants both locally and in the whole Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region by working closely with the authorities in Guangdong. We were aware of the cross-boundary nature of air pollution, as pointed in the article. For that reason, we started our cooperation with Guangdong as early as the beginning of the last decade. We have a consensus with the Guangdong Provincial Government to reduce, on best endeavour basis, the 1997 emission levels of four major air pollutants by 20% to 55% by 2010.
By close of 2004, we had already cut the local emissions of nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds (VOC) by 16%, 28% and 23% respectively.
Curiously, the electricity companies seem to have escaped the scourge of the author untouched. Admittedly, the local emission of sulphur dioxide had increased in the last few years, despite our early adoption of ultra-low sulphur diesel as the statutory diesel standard, because of increased generation from local power plants. Nonetheless, we are working hard to press the power companies to burn more natural gas in placement of coal and to expedite the installation of emission reduction projects. What's more, we have proposed to link their permitted rate of return under the future regulatory regime with their performance in meeting emission caps – limits capping the maximum load of pollutants they may discharge. These caps are allocated whenever power stations' licences are due for renewal and we have categorically pledged to tighten them up in order to meet the targets for 2010.
Power stations aside, the SAR Government has just announced a package of new measures to strengthen emission control in other areas -
(a) to launch a $3.2 billion grant scheme in 2007 to provide incentives for the early replacement of pre-Euro and Euro I diesel commercial diesel vehicles (totalling about 74,000), with Euro IV models;
(b) to encourage the use of environment friendly cars through a 30% reduction in their First Registration Tax (subject to a cap of $50,000 per vehicle);
(c) to consult the public in early 2007 on legislation to ban idling vehicles;
(d) to introduce Mandatory Energy Efficiency Labels for commonly used household electrical appliances by 1 October 2007 to promote energy saving; and
(e) to implement a new regulation to impose limits on the VOC content in paints, printing inks and selected consumer products, and control emissions from printing processes, etc.
It is true that businessmen operating in the PRD have a great deal of role to play in cutting pollution. For this very reason, the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Business Coalition on the Environment - composed of various business associations - have started a campaign to sign up companies to the Clean Air Charter. The Charter signatories commit to implement measures that can help reduce pollution in their daily operations. As brought out in a recent speech of the Chief Executive Donald Tsang, the SAR Government urges businesses to adopt the same high environmental standards for their PRD operations as they do in Hong Kong. We are also developing a pollution-reduction pilot scheme, targeting at commonly used small emergency generators that produce disproportionately large quantities of black smoke in industrial operations in the region.
The article briefly glosses over the new World Health Organization (WHO)'s air quality guidelines, without mentioning however our announcement to critically review Hong Kong's current Air Quality Objectives. As a matter of fact, the SAR Government has all along been closely monitoring the development of this issue in the international scientific circle. In the light of the recent development in the WHO, we will commission a comprehensive 18-month study to review Hong Kong's position and to identify feasible medium and long-term strategies to control air pollution in line with the new guidelines. The study will aim to set interim and long term objectives together with feasible and practicable implementation strategies, followed by thorough public engagement. In the meantime we continue with our current efforts in combating air pollution, working both locally and with our neighbours.
Air pollution - like any other kinds of pollution - is what every modern city has to tackle, though the difficulties faced and options available may differ. In Hong Kong we are tackling the problem with decisive and targeted actions, knowing that the problem will not go away overnight. At the same time, what is required is a sense of pragmatism and due respect of facts, instead of appeal to sensational headlines.
Roy Tang
Deputy Director
for Director of Environmental Protection
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