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Following is the transcript (English portion) of a media session by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, after attending a radio programme this morning (November 1):
Reporter: For the Kai Tak Development project, can you tell us its role in promoting energy saving?
Secretary for the Environment: In the Kai Tak new development area, the Government plans to provide a district cooling system which is a communal central facility providing water-cooled system for the entire area. In essence, it replaces individual air cooling systems installed by individual buildings. As a cost comparison, it will save around 20 to 35 per cent of the electricity bills over having individual chillers. It will also free up some roof space, originally (planned) for chillers. The plan is to provide this facility with a view to reducing the greenhouse gas emission on an annual basis of up to almost 60,000 tonnes per year.
Reporter: How much is the Government planning to invest in this project and will other green groups...?
Secretary for the Environment: The concept of a district cooling system is not entirely new in other cities although it is the first one in Hong Kong. The concept itself is very simple. It is basically a communal system. The beauty of it is that it will achieve much greater efficiency saving, in terms of electricity consumption. It is also more environmentally friendly so I think as a concept, it will be welcomed by most of the people and for individual users, the building occupants, they will have savings in their electricity bills. So I think it is a win win situation, both for the environment and for the future tenants.
Reporter: Hong Kong is already losing its competitiveness in the region because of its poor air quality. So can you give us a brief timeline as to when the WHO standards will be achieved in Hong Kong?
Secretary for the Environment: We care about both the public health as well as Hong Kong's competitiveness as a financial city. That is exactly why the Government has pledged to adopt WHO standards as the reference for our review of the air quality objectives. In addition to pledging to meet these standards, we also need to roll out a package of measures, including the adoption of cleaner fuel for our power generation which contributes significantly to our sulphur dioxide emission. We also need to tackle the transportation sector which emits a lot of pollutants at the street level. We also need to think about ways and means to use our energy more efficiently so as to reduce the total consumption and as a result reduce the carbon emission. So I think it is a multi-pronged approach whereby setting a high standard and putting out an aggressive and ambitious package of measures, we hope that we can achieve a much better air quality in the time to come.
Reporter: When will that be achieved?
Secretary for the Environment: It depends on how much effort we are paying and it is an effort that all of us, including the Government, the green groups and every citizen in the community, have to do it together.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, November 1, 2008
Issued at HKT 15:26
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