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The Council for Sustainable Development (SDC) today (February 15) submitted to the Government a report on the engagement process on better air quality with recommendations on the way forward.
The SDC has recommended, among other things ¡V
(a) Adopting a colour-coded system to denote ¡§high air pollution¡¨ days, and on ¡§red alert¡¨ days discouraging activities that generate air pollutants such as driving of private vehicles and use of non-essential electrical and diesel equipment in certain zones;
(b) Adopting road pricing in congested areas in Hong Kong as soon as possible to form part of Hong Kong¡¦s overall transport strategy;
(c) Exploring cleaner fuel options like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for light goods and passenger vehicles, building more pedestrianised areas and close roads in congested locations, and reducing the number of unused or half-used bus routes during certain hours of the day;
(d) Introducing policies to mandate the use of low sulphur diesel for marine transport as well as catering, construction and port industries; and
(e) Putting in place incentives for electricity companies to work with consumer groups and supply less environmentally damaging power with requisite rewards.
¡§Addressing air quality issues requires a comprehensive and integrated approach. The council urges the Government to tackle the air pollution problem in a holistic and co-ordinated manner and come up with a comprehensive plan with timetable and resource allocation on how to effectively implement all necessary measures to tackle the air pollution problem, ¡¨ council chairman Dr Edgar Cheng said.
¡§The more than 80,000 public responses the council received during the Better Air Quality engagement process clearly show that the community is concerned about the current state of air quality and they want to see quick and determined actions to tackle the problem,¡¨ Dr Cheng said.
To ensure the transparency of the process and to provide further reference for the Government¡¦s deliberations, the council has also submitted, in tandem with its report, the report analysing the public views prepared by the independent reporting agency - the University of Hong Kong¡¦s Social Sciences Research Centre. Both reports have been posted on the Council for Sustainable Development¡¦s website at www.susdev.org.hk
¡§We thank the council for its efforts in implementing the engagement process to gather public opinions on air quality issues,¡¨ a government spokesman said.
¡§The Government will carefully consider the recommendations put forward by the council, especially regarding the practicality of these recommendations, and provide a response in due course,¡¨ he said.
The council launched the engagement process on air quality in June, 2007, inviting the community to give their views on three issues in particular:
(a) appropriate actions on high air pollution days;
(b) energy saving or demand side management; and
(c) congestion charging mechanisms such as electronic road pricing.
During the engagement process, the council organised 48 seminars, briefings and forums, either on its own or jointly with 26 partner organisations, which were attended by about 5,800 stakeholders. Some partner organisations also organised other forms of engagement events such as carnivals and competitions. With the various support given, public response came in the form of completed questionnaires, written/email submissions or messages posted on the online forum.
The engagement process came to a close in October, 2007. On December 17, 2007, the council organised an Air Summit to feed back the results of the engagement process to stakeholders and consolidate the responses to its findings.
Ends/Friday, February 15, 2008
Issued at HKT 17:01
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