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Following is the transcript (English portion) of remarks made by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, at a media session after attending the launching ceremony of the Hong Kong Carbon Reduction Campaign this morning (April 20):
Reporter: Are you confident that the plastic bag levy will be passed?
Secretary for the Environment: There's every intention of the Government to take the legislation forward by finishing its enactment. There has long been a debate for this outcome of which we are very confident. With the support from the people, and all the discussions we have gone through with various sectors and political parties, I hope that the plastic bag levy can be implemented this summer.
Reporter: Some questions about this (carbon reduction) campaign. Why don't you also encourage the civil servants to participate in this campaign? And to what extent or how effective do you think this campaign will be?
Secretary for the Environment: The low carbon campaign is not just a Government campaign. It's a campaign to be taken part by both the Government taking certain policy initiatives and enterprises seeing this as a business responsibility and individuals also joining hands. I think the function today signifies this tripartite relationship. As we can see from various policy initiatives proposed by the Government in the last two years, we are committed to developing Hong Kong into a low carbon economy. At the same time, I think the business sector also realises that, by reducing carbon it does not necessarily reduce your profit. On the contrary, it brings savings particularly in terms of energy consumption. The challenge is how to turn both of these into business opportunities and also an opportunity for individuals to take part. And I think the campaign launched today would involve people, families as well as enterprises. And that's why it's widely supported by the Environment and Conservation Fund, from the Government, business sector as well as NGOs. I hope it will make a change, and move a step forward and become a new milestone.
Reporter: Would you encourage perhaps the introduction of road pricing and halt the building of roads in Hong Kong so that we get vehicles, trucks, lorries, cars, off our roads to improve our carbon footprint?
Secretary for the Environment: The whole campaign is more than just improving the air quality. It essentially reduces our carbon footprint. As we all know, 63% of our carbon footprint in Hong Kong comes from the energy generation and the way we use our energy, so one priority area is how to conserve the energy we use. And obviously other sectors including transportation and how we deal with our landfill gas will also help to reduce our carbon footprint. I think the campaign today is a very good step forward by not just the Government but also enterprises and individuals joining hands.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript)
Ends/Monday, April 20, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:33
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