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Following is a question by the Hon Audrey Eu and a reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, in the Legislative Council today (December 12):
Question:
The Government has recently proposed to provide subsidy to schools and organisations through the Environment and Conservation Fund for the purchase and installation of environmental facilities in their premises in a bid to promote energy efficiency, energy saving and waste reduction. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the anticipated number of schools and organisations which will be provided with such subsidy;
(b) whether it has set any targets in respect of the average level of energy efficiency attained and the total amount of waste reduced by each school after the procurement of environmental facilities; if it has, of the details; if not, the reasons for that; and
(c) apart from subsidising non-profit-making organisations in procuring mirco-generating facilities using renewable energy, of the assistance, particularly technical assistance, to be offered to these organisations regarding the regular maintenance of such generating facilities and their connection to the power companies' power grids?
Reply:
Madam President,
To raise the Hong Kong Special Administrative Regionˇ¦s profile as a green city with quality life and maintain its status as a metropolis to promote experience sharing in addressing regional environmental issues, the Government proposes to inject $1 billion into the Environment and Conservation Fund (ECF) which is a statutory trust fund to support educational, scientific research and technology demonstration projects and activities in relation to environmental and conservation.
The proposal was made in the Policy Address in October this year and will be put forward to the Legislative Councilˇ¦s Finance Committee for approval in January next year. If the Legislative Council approves the injection of funds into the ECF, the scope of ECF can be expanded to develop territory-wide education programmes to encourage participation by every stratum of society (i.e. from individuals to the whole community). This can help raise peopleˇ¦s environmental awareness. The expanded scope of programmes includes:
(a) territory-wide educational and community involvement campaigns on environmental protection, including school activities;
(b) technology transfer from professional institutions to practitioners to enhance environmental performance of industrial process;
(c) minor works projects to demonstrate and promote energy efficiency, nature conservation and waste reduction; and
(d) regional and international policy and technology conferences to promote exchanges amongst professional bodies on latest developments on environment and conservation matters.
According to the current ECF funding guidelines, no subsidy will be granted for works items except some one-off basic fitting-out works of certain projects. Likewise, purchase of minor equipment and tools will only be subsidised under certain project categories, subject to a funding ceiling of $50,000. Such rules limit the scope of the supported projects. In fact, some minor environmental facilities, such as recycling bins, composting machines and solar panels, are conducive to promoting energy efficiency and saving, as well as waste reduction or recycling. They also make people aware of the fact that changes in daily habits can help enhance environmental protection.
We intend to use part of the enhanced ECF to subsidise schools and non-profit-making organisations to purchase and install minor environmental facilities. All local schools, totalling about 2,200 as well as all non-profit-making organisations (such as youth centres, elderly services organisations and various community bodies) may apply for funding. As these schools and organisations have different needs and various venue constraints, the estimated number of schools or organisations to be subsidised is not available at this stage. However, we hope that, after the injection of fund into the ECF, schools and organisations will be encouraged to participate in energy saving and waste reduction and to apply for the ECF to install environmental facilities.
We have started liaison with professional bodies and relevant policy bureaux and government departments, such as the Education Bureau, the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD) and the Architectural Services Department which will offer technical advice and support for the administration of the enhanced ECF. The ECF Committee and its vetting sub-committees will further develop the funding principles and the operation details for administering the ECF, including strengthening the vetting and monitoring mechanism and determining the funding ceiling for minor works project to ensure proper use of the ECF.
We will also adopt a proactive approach in identifying potential collaborators, including community services or education organisations, professional bodies, green groups, etc. and consult potential applicants, so that the injected fund can better meet their needs, and bring about widespread impact.
Project proponents are required to set out specific targets and the expected demonstrable outcomes in their funding applications. Some of the indicators that can be used to assess the outcomes of the projects include the amount of food waste reduced with the use of small scale food waste composting facilities, the number of plastic foam food containers reduced after the installation of washing facilities for the implementation of green lunch, the electricity saved after replacing the old fluorescent tubes with T5 ones, the increase in environmental awareness and knowledge as a result of the education and publicity programmes.
Take energy saving facilities as an example. T5 electronic ballast fluorescent lighting system is about 30% more energy efficient than a conventional T8 electromagnetic ballast system. With regard to green lunch, among the primary schools totalling more than 500 in Hong Kong, it is estimated that at least 100 of them are well-positioned to adopt the centralised lunch distribution practice. If all these schools switch to centralised lunch distribution, 2.3 tonnes of disposable food containers will be reduced on each school day, i.e. an annual reduction of about 440 tonnes. Moreover, the daily lunch supply for all primary students throughout the territory is about 100 tonnes in weight. It is roughly estimated that the students leave an average of 30 tonnes of food unfinished. If an electric food waste composter is installed in every school, it is estimated that about 15 tonnes of food waste can be treated, i.e. an annual reduction of about 2,800 tonnes.
Funding applications will be assessed with reference to the targets and expected outcomes of the projects. The recipients are required to submit review reports one year after completion of the projects to help us monitor the outcomes of the projects.
Since most schools and organisations do not have much experience in the purchase, installation and use of environmental facilities, the Government will render various kinds of technical support including providing guidelines and successful examples for their reference to facilitate smooth implementation of worthwhile projects.
In addition, we will invite professional bodies and relevant departments, such as the EMSD, to provide professional advice and assistance to schools or organisations applying for the ECF to ascertain the feasibility, actual needs, as well as the practicability of the budget and implementation schedule of the projects.
Ends/Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Issued at HKT 18:05
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