HKGCC has responded to the Public Consultation on 2025 Air Quality Objectives Review; an edited version is below.
The Chamber recognises the efforts that the Government has made to improve air quality over the years.
Hong Kong’s air quality affects our competitiveness as a place to do business and attract the best talent. There have been considerable improvements in the last 10 years, but much more remains to be done.
We support the Government’s approach to progressively tighten air quality standards to achieve the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines levels. The Consultation Document (CD) has identified a number of new measures in the areas of energy and power generation, and greener road and marine transportation. Concerted efforts are required from business and consumers alike to implement these measures.
AQOs for 2025
The Government proposes tightening three targets for the 2025 Air Quality Objectives (AQOs): for 24-hour Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) and for Particulate Matter PM2.5 on both an annual and 24-hour basis.
The Chamber supports these proposals but believes they can go further. On SO2, for example, as most SO2 is emitted locally, largely from the marine and power generation sectors, we believe that Hong Kong should aim for a more ambitious level than the current target.
We welcome the tightening of the targets on PM2.5 on both an annual and 24-hour basis. However, we again strongly advocate targets that are higher than the current proposals.
The Government has not proposed any tightening of the target for Particulate Matter PM10. Although emissions of PM10 are largely a regional problem, the Government should commit to working closely with Guangdong Province and to tighten the current target.
Concentrations of roadside Nitrogen Dioxide remain twice that of the air quality targets for 2020. Mitigation measures, such as the regulation of road transport, are available to bring down this figure sharply, and we believe the Government should adopt more vigorous measures given the serious health risk.
Mitigation measures
A key contributor to air pollution is fossil fuels. We reiterate the proposals made in our previous submission on decarbonisation, which include:
- Increase the proportion of zero-carbon energy in Hong Kong, through regional cooperation with additional supplies of nuclear and renewable energy.
- For public transport, the Chamber supports the Government’s “rail first” approach, supplemented by low-emission buses and support for electric vehicles.
- For marine transport, support for electrification and Liquid Natural Gas bunkering should be considered.
- We support the Government’s efforts to improve walkability.
A new Clean Air Plan
Hong Kong’s Clean Air Plan was published in 2013, and is now due an update. We therefore suggest that a new edition be published next year, following the conclusion of this consultation exercise, to set out concrete proposals.
Hong Kong has fewer monitoring stations and less availability of data than other leading cities, such as London. The Government should aim to have equivalent data sets and services available by 2025.
Poor air quality affects everyone. Setting stringent yet achievable AQOs for 2025 is important to not only enhance public health but also to sustain Hong Kong’s reputation as a smart city supported by strong environmental performance.
Effective instruments to improve air quality already exist. It remains for the Government to speed up implementation to make Hong Kong a world-class city that is greener and cleaner.