HONG KONG 2004 - The Environment

The past decade has seen many achievements in Hong Kong's efforts to pre-empt environmental problems through the application of an environmental assessment process to policy, planning and project proposals. Development and policy proposals submitted to the Executive Council that involve environmental issues and all submissions to the Public Works Subcommittee of the Legislative Council's Finance Committee must contain an assessment of the environmental implications.

The Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) provides a systematic, clear and transparent framework for assessing the environmental impacts arising from designated projects and, where avoidance of the impacts is not practicable, for identifying effective measures to mitigate the impacts to an acceptable level. It is supplemented by a technical memorandum setting out clear and consistent technical guidelines and criteria. Information on applications made under the ordinance is available at the EPD's home page. Since the implementation of the ordinance, 82 environmental impact assessment (EIA) reports have been approved (as at December 31) and more than one million people and many ecologically sensitive areas are protected against unacceptable environmental impacts.

Environmental monitoring and audit (EM&A) is an integral part of the EIA process to validate the assumptions made in the planning stage and to monitor the effectiveness of prescribed mitigation measures during project implementation. This is to ensure that every project delivers the environmental performance promised in the impact assessments. In 2004, the EPD managed about 130 EM&A programmes for major projects.

For the past five years, the EPD has been promoting EM&A reporting through the Internet — the Cyber EIA Process under the EIAO. For major projects, permit holders are required to set up dedicated websites to publish project information, including EM&A data and results, in a user-friendly format. Since April 2002, major projects have been required to set up web camera systems to make live images of the site conditions accessible by the public through the dedicated website. The web-based reporting provides easier access to information on environmental performance and enhances public participation in the monitoring of the EIA process.

Environmental concerns are incorporated into land use planning through the application of the environmental assessment process and the adoption of the environmental planning standards and guidelines. For major land use planning studies, a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is required to integrate environmental considerations into the formulation of land use plans. As part of the engineering feasibility study of urban development or redevelopment projects with a study area covering more than 20 hectares or involving a population or more than 100 000, a statutory environmental impact assessment under the EIA Ordinance will be carried out. These environmental assessments form an integral part of the planning studies and help identify major environmental issues and possible mitigation measures for integration into the land use plans.

An assessment of the development strategies at territorial level showed that continuing urbanisation would likely have implications for air and water quality, increase public exposure to noise and overload Hong Kong's waste disposal capacity. While the timely provision of resources and environmental mitigation measures could resolve some of these issues, others may require fundamental reconsideration of the proposals' implications on Hong Kong's long-term sustainability. The issue of environmental sustainability is being revisited in the new round of review of the Territorial Development Strategy (known as Hong Kong 2030: Planning Vision and Strategy), which began in September 2000. Starting from April 2002, a Sustainability Implication section is also required to be included in the submissions to the Executive Council.

The Government has introduced new initiatives to promote environmental management in both the public and private sectors, including the Green Manager Scheme, environmental auditing, environmental management systems (EMS) and environmental performance reporting. The Government leads by example: all bureaux and departments have appointed Green Managers; most have regular environmental audit programmes; and some have been certified to ISO 14001 standard. Since 2000, all bureaux and departments have been required to publish annual environmental performance reports on their operations, programmes and policy areas. To support this reporting initiative, a number of reporting guidebooks and benchmark tools have been published to help government bureaux and departments improve the quality of their performance reports. All these documents and the reporting experience were consolidated into a useful web-based 'Cyber Helpdesk on Environmental Performance Report' in August 2004 to provide readily accessible, concise guidance and information for reporters. Useful environmental management information is also available at the EPD's home page.

A study and a support package on ISO 14001 environmental management systems (EMS) for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the electrical/electronic sector and the construction sector were completed in mid 2004. To provide EMS support to local SMEs, a seminar on the ISO 14001 EMS support package to over 200 participants was held in December 2004 for construction SMEs, and a similar seminar for the electrical/electronic sector is scheduled in January 2005.

Environmental pollution transcends administrative boundaries. Hong Kong and Guangdong have worked together on environmental matters for nearly 20 years. To enhance the collaboration, a Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection was set up in 2000. Various special panels were formed under the Joint Working Group to examine specific environmental issues in which cooperation could be enhanced. In 2004, the Joint Working Group decided to set up a new special panel, comprising members of the Economic and Trade Commission of Guangdong Province, the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau of the HKSAR and relevant departments of the two governments. The new panel will be responsible for promoting public education and technology of energy saving measures and clean production among the commercial and industrial sectors in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region.

The HKSAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government have drawn up a regional air quality management plan that aims to reduce regional pollutant emissions by 20 per cent to 55 per cent by 2010, taking 1997 as the base year. The two governments will start operating a regional monitoring network covering the entire PRD region with 16 monitoring stations in the first quarter of 2005. Subject to the operational situation of the monitoring network, a joint data centre will announce the monitoring results to the public as soon as possible. Both sides are also developing an Emission Trading Pilot Scheme for Fuel-burning Power Plants in the PRD. This serves to provide a study report to the two governments by mid-2006 and present the details of the pilot scheme to the power plants in Hong Kong and Guangdong to enable the prospective participants to identify their trading partners and draw up the emission trading agreements.

On the water quality front, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are undertaking a 15-year water pollution control joint implementation programme to gradually reduce the pollution loads in Deep Bay with the objective of returning the bay to a clean and healthy state by 2015. To gauge its effectiveness and draw up necessary additional mitigation measures, both sides reached an agreement in 2004 on a detailed work plan and established a joint study team to carry out the first progress review of the joint programme. In 2003, a regional strategy to protect the water environment of Mirs Bay was also developed by the two sides. On a regional level, Hong Kong and Guangdong are now working on a joint project to construct a numerical water quality model to provide an analytical tool and the scientific basis for the two Governments to formulate water quality management plans for the Pearl River estuary region. The two sides are also working in collaboration to improve the water quality of the Dongjiang (East River) and to protect Chinese white dolphins and fishery resources.

The Government is committed to improving the quality of life in rural areas and to ending or removing land uses that degrade the rural environment. Village sewage disposal has also gradually improved in the rural areas of the New Territories.

The Government has completed risk assessments of all potentially hazardous installations (PHI), such as liquefied petroleum gas and oil terminals and chlorine stores at water treatment works. It has completed or is implementing all its plans for risk reduction and has substantially reduced the risk to the public. However, the risk management of these sites is an ongoing process due to changes in dangerous goods inventories and population development near the sites. In addition to coverage of PHI sites, risk assessment is required under the EIAO for designated projects which manufacture, store, use or transport dangerous goods.