LCQ5: Environmental impact assessments
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Question:
In recent years, the Government has consistently emphasised an infrastructure-driven economy and has been committed to enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness. However, the industry has relayed that the production costs for engineering and construction projects in Hong Kong have been high in recent years, one of the reasons being that such engineering projects must comply with the statutory procedures under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (Cap. 499) and the relevant assessment criteria specified in the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process (the Memorandum). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(1) whether it has compiled statistics on the number of engineering projects in the past three years where compliance costs (including mitigation measures, compensation proposals, or monitoring and auditing expenses) have increased significantly due to the requirements of individual assessment criteria in the Memorandum; if so, of the extent of cost increase;
(2) whether, during the implementation of the existing environmental impact assessment process and the Memorandum, the Environmental Protection Department has received any complaints or views from the engineering sector, consultancy firms or contractors stating that the assessment criteria are overly stringent, disproportionate to actual environmental benefits, or result in unreasonable cost pressures; if so, of the number of cases received in the past three years and the main concerns; and
(3) whether it will, in light of the current economic environment, review the assessment criteria in the Memorandum to rationalise outdated or overly stringent indicators while maintaining statutory environmental protection requirements, thereby shortening project development cycles and achieving the goals of reducing overall production costs and promoting development?
Reply:
President,
The establishment of the statutory procedures and the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process (Technical Memorandum) under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) (Cap. 499) is intended to ensure that environmental factors and public views are fully taken into account during the planning of works projects, so as to safeguard public health and well-being and to seize development opportunities to improve the environment. This is especially crucial for achieving environmental protection in parallel with development.
In 2022, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) launched the world's first publicly accessible smart environmental impact assessment (EIA) platform, the Hong Kong Environmental Database (HKED), together with related smart assessment tools, to assist project proponents in identifying potential environmental impacts more effectively, thereby enabling the formulation of greener and more sustainable mitigation proposals at the early planning stage, and facilitating speedier and more cost-effective project delivery.
Leveraging AI and Geographic Information System technologies, the HKED brings a breakthrough transformation to EIA work, not only effectively enhancing EIA efficiency but also reforming the traditional process of passive vetting of submitted EIA reports into proactive provision of data and tools. Built on open access and data-sharing principles, it enables sharing the data not only with government departments but also project consultants and teams, academia, and even relevant organisations worldwide.
Project proponents can use the ecological data, smart assessment and spatial analysis tools available on the HKED to identify relevant environmental information and potential environmental issues at the initial planning stage, enabling them to quickly assess different design options and avoid ecologically sensitive areas or potential environmental problems, and eliminating the need to explore mitigation measures after issues are identified at the later EIA stages. This breakthrough transformation proactively helps project proponents address environmental issues without compromising EIA standards and requirements, while significantly reduces the time needed for EIA work, from about 36 to 48 months to about 15 to 24 months (roughly halved). This demonstrates the HKED's multiple benefits in expediting processes, improving efficiency, reducing costs, and protecting the environment and ecology, etc, and its positive role in taking forward major livelihood projects.
In response to the question raised by the Hon Aaron Bok, the reply as follows.
(1) The EIAO covers aspects including air quality, water quality, noise, ecology and landscape, providing scientific and objective assessment criteria for project planning, so as to formulate appropriate mitigation measures, compensation proposals, or monitoring and audit measures. These measures are pre-requisites for a project to obtain approval to proceed under the EIAO. The design and costs of such measures vary depending on the scale of the project, the time required for development, and the conditions of surrounding environment. The overall economic environment will also impact costs. The EPD does not maintain information on the increased compliance costs of works projects arising from the EIA process or the benefits of reduced environmental impacts brought about by the EIA process.
(2) In the past three years, the EPD has not received any complaints or views alleging that the EIA criteria are overly stringent, disproportionate to the actual environmental benefits, or causing unreasonable cost pressure.
(3) The EPD reviews the EIA criteria and related content from time to time. After consulting the environmental sector and relevant stakeholders, the EPD amended the EIAO and the Technical Memorandum in 2023 to further improve the EIA mechanism and streamline procedures, with a sharper focus on key environmental protection. The optimisation measures include simplifying technical assessment requirements under the Technical Memorandum, facilitating direct applications for environmental permits by project proponents, and revising the designated projects under the EIAO.
Taking noise assessment as an example, in amending the Technical Memorandum, the Government has included mitigation measures such as acoustic windows and acoustic balconies as direct mitigation methods to be considered. After the amendment, if the relevant authorities confirm that acoustic windows or balconies, etc, can be adopted in planned residential buildings as direct mitigation measures, part of the excessive noise affecting these buildings would be addressed, thereby reducing the need to construct noise barriers along new roads. The above amendments enhance the flexibility of noise assessment and help reduce relevant project costs. Taking the EIA for the San Tin/Lok Ma Chau Development Node Project as an example, upon adopting the new mitigation approach above, about two kilometres of noise barriers/enclosures were successfully eliminated. While significantly reducing project costs, it can still ensure that the project does not cause noise impacts on residents.
In addition, under the amended Technical Memorandum, project proponents may, after the detailed design at a later stage of a project is available (e.g. before tendering or before commencement of works), use the online construction noise management platform under the EPD's HKED to conduct a detailed quantitative construction noise assessment and submit the relevant mitigation plan, so as to complete the construction noise assessment efficiently.
Meanwhile, the EPD has introduced various advanced technologies to further enhance its capabilities in environmental monitoring and assessment, including the use of AI to assist in monitoring migratory routes and roosting conditions of wintering birds, and the use of 3D optical radar scanning technology for tree surveys. These applications not only improve efficiency, but also enhance the scientific quality and reliability of the EIA.
The EPD will continue to uphold a professional, open and collaborative approach, and actively encourage project proponents to put forward innovative, cost-effective and practicable environmental mitigation proposals, so as to ensure that all environmental factors have been duly considered during project delivery, while reducing overall project costs and expediting delivery.
Ends/Wednesday, April 22, 2026
Issued at HKT 12:02
Issued at HKT 12:02
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