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The Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, today (October 13) attended the 12th Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Ministerial Meeting (EMM) held in Cebu, the Philippines, together with energy ministers from the other 20 APEC members to discuss a wide range of energy-related issues under the theme of "Towards an Energy Resilient APEC Community".
Following the Ministers-Energy CEOs Dialogue in the morning, Mr Wong exchanged views with other delegates during the EMM on various issues covering energy security, energy trade and investment, energy efficiency and sustainable community, as well as the promotion and use of cleaner sources of energy.
Speaking at a plenary session, entitled "The Global Challenge of Energy Resiliency", Mr Wong told his counterparts that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government attaches great importance to the reliability of energy supply as it is vital to local economic development and helps sustain Hong Kong's position as an important financial and commercial centre. He noted that Hong Kong has implemented effective and long-standing plans and measures to enhance the climate resilience of its energy infrastructure.
Outlining the climate-proofing energy infrastructure in Hong Kong, Mr Wong said that the Government has been working closely with the energy suppliers to implement concrete measures to ensure a robust energy system. As a result, Hong Kong has a high power supply reliability of over 99.999%, which compares well with, and in fact surpasses, many other large cosmopolitan cities.
Mr Wong also emphasised the importance of mitigation measures to manage demand for energy consumption. Apart from adopting APEC's target to reduce aggregate energy intensity by 45% by 2035, the Government published in May this year the Energy Saving Plan for Hong Kong's Built Environment 2015-2025+, which set for Hong Kong a more ambitious target of reducing aggregate energy intensity by 40% by 2025, using 2005 as the base year.
"With commitment to the development of an Energy Resilient APEC Community and substantial experience in developing climate-proof energy infrastructure, Hong Kong will continue to sharpen our policies and efforts in combating the adverse impacts of climate change in the light of new developments in climate science and technological advances," he added.
In addition to attending the EMM meeting, Mr Wong also took the opportunity to hold a meeting with the Deputy Director of the National Energy Administration, Mr Zhang Yuqing, to exchange views on issues of mutual concern.
In the evening, Mr Wong attended the welcome reception hosted by APEC for the delegates to the EMM.
He will depart Cebu and return to Hong Kong tomorrow (October 14).
Ends/Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Issued at HKT 19:47
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