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Following is a question by Hon Kenneth Leung and a written reply by the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, in the Legislative Council today (November 20):
Question:
The Government launched the "Green Hong Kong•Carbon Audit" campaign (the Campaign) in July 2008. To tie in with the Campaign, it also issued the "Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings (Commercial, Residential or Institutional Purposes) in Hong Kong" so as to assist companies or organisations which have signed the Carbon Reduction Charter (Charter) and become "Carbon Audit•Green Partners" in conducting carbon emission audits on their buildings. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) of the respective numbers of private buildings which participated in and withdrew from the Campaign each year from 2008 to 2013;
(2) of the respective numbers of buildings under the management of the Government and statutory bodies which participated in the Campaign each year from 2008 to 2013, with a breakdown by government department and statutory body concerned;
(3) of the respective numbers of private organisations which signed the Charter to participate in the Campaign and those withdrew from the Campaign each year from 2008 to 2013;
(4) of the respective numbers of government departments and statutory bodies which signed the Charter to participate in the Campaign each year from 2008 to 2013;
(5) whether the various government departments participating in the Campaign have employed additional staff and/or hired consultants to cope with the extra work arising from conducting carbon audits on their buildings; if they have, of the total number of newly created posts and the respective additional expenses incurred by the work concerned (including expenses on salaries, on-the-job training, purchase of equipment and engagement of external consultants, etc.) each year from 2008 to 2013; if not, the reasons for that; and
(6) whether it has made reference to the data collected by various government departments from the carbon audits conducted on buildings and taken measures accordingly so as to improve energy efficiency of the buildings concerned and reduce carbon emissions by such buildings; if it has, of the details and effectiveness of such measures, including statistics on the reduction of carbon emissions; if not, the reasons for that?
Reply:
President,
My reply to parts (1) to (4) of the question is as follows:
In July 2008, the Government published the "Guidelines to Account for and Report on Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Removals for Buildings (Commercial, Residential or Institutional Purposes) in Hong Kong" to assist different quarters of the community in conducting carbon audits to better understand the situation of energy consumptions and carbon emissions of their buildings and identify room for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, with a view to implementing carbon reduction measures to achieve energy saving and reduction of GHG emissions. At the same time, we launched the "Green Hong Kong•Carbon Audit" campaign and invited organisations from different sectors of the community (including statutory bodies) to join. With their signing of the "Carbon Reduction Charter", they would hopefully encourage and support building managements' efforts in conducting carbon audits for their buildings and implementing relevant carbon reduction plans.
As of 2013, more than 340 organisations from real estate development and property management sector, hotel industry, banking industry and logistics industry, as well as professional bodies, universities, and non-profit making organisations, etc., have joined the campaign and conducted carbon audits in around 500 buildings.
A breakdown of the number of organisations joining the "Green Hong Kong•Carbon Audit" campaign by years is set out in Annex.
We did not receive requests from participating organisations to withdraw from the campaign during the period.
In order to promote carbon auditing practice in government managed buildings, we promulgated a guideline in April 2009 to encourage bureaux and departments to carry out regular carbon audits for government buildings with construction floor area of more than 10,000 square metres. The Government has also rolled out in September 2012 a three-year programme to conduct energy-cum-carbon audits for about 120 government buildings and public facilities. As of 2013, 20 bureaux and departments have conducted carbon audits for about 240 government buildings and facilities, among which around 60 government buildings and facilities have conducted energy-cum-carbon audits.
(5) The manpower and financial resources for carbon audits initiated by individual departments were generally met by the recurrent expenses of the departments. For those energy-cum-carbon audits under the three-year programme in September 2012, they were conducted mainly through hiring of engineering consultants, and so far we have completed the audits for around 60 government buildings and public facilities, involving an expenditure of about $4.12 million.
(6) For those audited buildings, the audit reports suggested that carbon reduction measures could be implemented in areas including energy use (including air conditioning, electrical facilities, lift and escalator and lighting installations, etc), waste management, use of water and behavioural change. In respect of improving energy efficiency, we set an energy saving target of reducing the power consumption of government buildings by five per cent during the five years from 2009-2010 to 2013-2014 under comparable operating conditions of 2007-2008. Latest figures show that in 2012-2013, the electricity consumption in government buildings was reduced by 7.6 per cent when compared with 2007-2008 which exceeded the original target.
Ends/Thursday, November 20, 2014
Issued at HKT 12:45
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