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Following is the English version of the welcoming speech delivered by Vice-Chairman of the Council for Sustainable Development, Dr Edgar Cheng, at the "Clean Air – Clear Choices" Launching Ceremony this (June 2) afternoon:
This is an important day for the Council for Sustainable Development. It is a great pleasure to have your presence today at the launching ceremony of the Council's public engagement process on "Better Air Quality".
I am delighted to see the participation of thousands of a huge gathering of stakeholders and members of the public in this ceremony. Never has there been such a large-scale event organised by the Council. This is the first of its kind and today marks a new beginning. We have organised a carnival launching ceremony to kick off the public engagement process to bring you to the discussion of a problem dear to our hearts – Hong Kong's air quality.
First of all, I would like to thank the Commercial Radio to help organise this event and roll out our ideas vividly. We are doing a lot today to improve air quality, and this will benefit our future generations by giving them a cleaner and healthier environment to live in. This is "sustainable development". Many people think that Hong Kong's air quality is affected by sources outside Hong Kong and there is not much that we can do. However, if we think carefully, we will realise that the majority of air pollutants we inhale everyday are in fact produced by ourselves, such as vehicle emissions and the volatile organic compounds contained in hair gel – all these affect our health directly. The Government and Mainland authorities have launched many initiatives to improve the regional air quality. You and I can help them do better by changing our daily habits to tie in well with their work. We need to work more, locally as well as regionally, looking after our air quality.
The Council for Sustainable Development issues an Invitation and Response (IR) document today for the forthcoming public engagement process and invites you to actively discuss and comment on three key areas of concern, namely, actions to be taken in high air pollution days; energy conservation or demand side management, and road pricing mechanisms. The Council knows well that the issue of air quality covers a wide range of topics and we focus on these three because they are closely related to our daily lives. The Government needs your valuable input in formulating the relevant policy. Others issues related to air quality were identified in the Council Report "Clean Air and Blue Skies – The Choice is Ours" released last year and recommendations were put forward to the Government. The Government has responded positively. The report and the Government's responses are available at the Council's website. You are also welcome to send in your views online.
The public engagement process on "Better Air Quality" commences today and ends on October 15. We are organising a series of forums and workshops to discuss the IR document with the stakeholders. We have also set up an online forum at the Council's website. We have put a questionnaire there too to collect your views. The exhibition you saw when you entered the venue will also be roadshowed in different districts in Hong Kong to widely get across the message to the public. The public engagement process designed by the Council is stakeholder-oriented and without any pre-set position. It is highly transparent and emphasizes on sincere exchange of opinions. We would like to reach consensus bottom-up on some basic principles and important issues, which have implications on the sustainable development of Hong Kong. At the end of the day, the Council will put forward a series of recommendations to the Government based on these principles. Action plans will then be devised and the Government will report to the Council on the progress. In the past, the Council implemented public engagement processes on solid waste management, renewable energy, urban living space and population policy; and these processes were warmly supported by the stakeholders at large. In response, the Government also followed up on the issues vigorously.
The Council is committed to taking forward our public engagement work. Apart from today's launching ceremony, we have also invited more than 20 organisations and universities as our partners in the engagement process to help organise various activities, so that we are able to contact stakeholders from all sectors of the community. We are supported by the Music Peas Choir of the S.K.H. St. James' Primary School, Agency for Volunteer Service, Scout Association of Hong Kong and Hong Kong St. John Ambulance in organising today's event. Thank you very much and my special thanks goes to the Commercial Radio, our production partner for the event today, which actively supports our public engagement process on air.
Looking ahead, I hope you will all actively participate in the public engagement activities in the coming four months and express your valuable views on air quality. Thank you.
Ends/Saturday, June 2, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:38
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