Environmental pollution transcends administrative boundaries and Hong Kong and Guangdong have worked together on environmental matters for over 20 years. To strengthen this collaboration further, a Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection was set up in 2000. In December 2006, the group held its seventh meeting to review progress and to discuss the plans for 2007.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government have drawn up a regional air quality management plan that aims to reduce pollutant emissions in the region by 20 per cent to 55 per cent by 2010, taking 1997 as the base year. Since November 2005, a regional air quality monitoring network comprising 16 monitoring stations has been operating smoothly and reporting the Regional Air Quality Index. Both sides endorsed the implementation framework of an Emissions Trading Pilot Scheme for Thermal Power Plants in the PRD to be announced in early 2007.

Hong Kong and Shenzhen, meanwhile, are working jointly on a programme to gradually reduce the water pollution loads in Deep Bay. A review will be completed in 2007 to gauge its effectiveness and to see whether additional mitigation measures are needed. A water quality model for the Pearl River Estuary being developed jointly by Hong Kong and Guangdong is near completion. The two governments will be discussing the next phase of cooperation to develop a regional water quality management plan for the Pearl River Estuary.