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Following is a question by Hon Paul Tse and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for the Environment, Dr Kitty Poon, in the Legislative Council today (April 29):
Question:
It has been reported that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Australian Government issued earlier on its web site a travel advice regarding the air pollution situation in Hong Kong, indicating that air pollution in Hong Kong has aroused international concern. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) whether in the past three years, it had assessed the negative impact of the air pollution situation in Hong Kong on the tourism industry; if it had, of the results; if not, whether it will consider expeditiously conducting the relevant assessment;
(b) whether in the past three years, it had regularly conducted surveys on the views of tourists about air quality in Hong Kong, and used survey results as one of the indicators for appraising the work of improving air quality in Hong Kong; if so, of the details; if not, whether it will conduct the surveys concerned; and
(c) of the Government's concrete measures to alleviate the air pollution problem expeditiously, as well as how it assesses the effectiveness of such measures?
Reply:
President,
(a) and (b) The Hong Kong Tourism Board conducted questionnaire surveys to gauge tourists' views on various aspects (including air quality) of Hong Kong over the past three years. The survey conducted each year covered the views of around 9,500 visitors having stayed in Hong Kong for more than one day. The survey findings showed that ratings of the tourists on the air quality of Hong Kong remained generally stable over the past three years. Less than 20% of the respondents found the air quality of Hong Kong unsatisfactory. Ratings given in the surveys on the air quality of Hong Kong are in the attached table.
The most common way to reflect changes in air quality is to monitor the concentrations of air pollutants and their trends. In this connection, the Environmental Protection Department operates 14 air quality monitoring stations throughout the territory to measure continuously the concentrations of major pollutants and releases the relevant data to the public.
The data obtained from the air quality monitoring stations have indicated an improvement in air quality in recent years. After the introduction of a number of vehicle emission reduction measures by the Government since 1999, the concentration of respirable suspended particulates at the roadside have dropped by 22%, nitrogen oxides by 23% and sulphur dioxide by 19%. The number of smoky vehicles has also reduced by 80%.
(c) The Government is committed to reducing emission of air pollutants in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) Region.
Power plants and vehicles are the major sources of air pollution in Hong Kong. In respect of power plants, it has been our policy since 1997 to require all newly installed generating units to be gas-fired. Since 2005, statutory emission caps have been set for all power plants. In last yearˇ¦s Policy Address, the Chief Executive announced that the Government would examine the feasibility of gradually increasing the proportion of natural gas for local electricity generation to 50% to further reduce power plant emissions. As for reducing vehicle emissions, key measures being pursued by Government include:
(i) adopting stringent emission standards for newly registered vehicles and stringent specifications of motor vehicle fuels;
(ii) mandating the retrofit of emission reduction devices in all commercial diesel vehicles which do not meet the emission standards of the European Union;
(iii) incentivising the replacement of diesel taxis and light buses with liquefied petroleum gas vehicles;
(iv) subsidising the replacement of pre-Euro or Euro I commercial diesel vehicles with new vehicles;
(v) reducing the first registration tax of environment-friendly vehicles; and
(vi) strengthening the enforcement against smoky vehicles.
To improve regional air quality, we have been implementing the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Management Plan in collaboration with the Guangdong Provincial Government. Our aim is to reduce the total emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds in the region by 40%, 20%, 55% and 55% respectively by 2010, using 1997 as the base year.
As a result of the efforts by Hong Kong and Guangdong Province to reduce emission of air pollutants in the PRD, the concentrations of respirable suspended particulates, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide in our ambient air reduced by 9% to 20% over the past five years, and the number of hours with reduced visibility also recorded a 30% decrease.
To further improve air quality, we are working on the following new initiatives:
(i) proposing a statutory ban on idling vehicles with running engines;
(ii) developing a proposal to strengthen the control of emissions from in-use petrol and liquefied petroleum gas vehicles;
(iii) examining the feasibility of further tightening the emission standards of motor vehicles;
(iv) introducing and promoting the use of a new generation electric vehicles;
(v) drawing up specifications for motor vehicle biodiesel to encourage its use as a motor vehicle fuel;
(vi) developing a proposal to control the emission of air pollutants from motor vehicles and off-road mobile sources operating within the airport and container terminals; and
(vii) extending the control of the Air Pollution Control (Volatile Organic Compounds) Regulation to other products.
In addition, we have commissioned a comprehensive consultancy study to review Hong Kong Air Quality Objectives and long-term air quality management strategy.
We believe the above emission abatement initiatives will be conducive to bringing continuous improvement to the air quality of Hong Kong, further safeguarding public health and attracting tourists to Hong Kong.
Ends/Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Issued at HKT 17:16
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