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Air Quality Panel Split On WHO Standards

Mar 13th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai, SCMP – Updated on Mar 13, 2009

A third of the experts overseeing a government review of air quality objectives believe the standards it is proposing to adopt will not safeguard public health.

Campaign group Friends of the Earth polled 15 members of the panel of advisers ahead of a meeting today, at which consultants will present the review’s initial findings.

Hong Kong’s air quality objectives have not changed since 1987.

The World Health Organisation has proposed three new sets of standards. Of these, Hong Kong is proposing to adopt, as an interim step, the least stringent set.

Critics say these are aimed at developing countries, not wealthy places such as Hong Kong.

Clean-air advocates expect the consultants to stick largely to the government’s plan today.

Asked if they agreed the minimum WHO standards were insufficient to fully protect public health, five of the advisers said that was so. Three are professors of medicine.

The rest of the panel members would not reply or offered no clear response. Among these are businessmen and representatives of the transport and logistics sectors.

Wan Chi-tin, a senior executive from Hongkong Electric, told the green group that he supported practical steps to improve air quality in the next five to seven years but would not say whether he considered the standards adequate.

Ng Hoi-san, a taxi company operator and a panel member, said: “We are not prepared to pay all the costs for a very tight standard that stands a low chance of being accomplished.”

Hahn Chu Hon-keung, environmental affairs manager of Friends of the Earth, feared some panel members would put the interests of their own sector ahead of the public’s.

Hong Kong Air Pollution Rap by MC Yan

Mar 5th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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February Was Warmest On Record

Mar 2nd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai – SCMP – Updated on Mar 02, 2009

Last month was the warmest February since records began 125 years ago, with an average temperature of 20.5 degrees Celsius, 4.2 degrees higher than the month’s average for the 30 years to 2000.

The thermometer hit 28.3 degrees on February 25, a record high for the month.

The Hong Kong Observatory said the warmer weather was the result of a weak northeast monsoon and the stronger than usual influence of warmer air from the south.

“The cold air from the north seldom reached southern China. In Hong Kong, the occurrence of the warmer southerly winds originating from the ocean was about three times normal,” the Observatory said.

The temperatures were in line with the warming trend seen over the past 50 years, it said. The average February temperature has been rising by 0.4 degrees each decade.

Global warming and increasing urbanisation had contributed to this trend, the Observatory said.

The previous warmest February was in 2007, when temperatures averaged 19.5 degrees.

The city has just experienced its warmest autumn on record.

Last year, in a projection of the long-term impact of climate change on the city, Observatory chief Lam Chiu-ying warned summers would get longer and winters shorter, and that winters would disappear for good by 2049, possibly as early as the 2020s. That would mean temperatures falling to below 12 degrees for less than one day per year.

This scenario would happen if greenhouse gas emissions were not controlled and urbanisation continued to accelerate.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, the Hong Kong director of environmental group Friends of the Earth, said the new data reinforced the fact that global warming was affecting the city.

“No doubt climate change is at work,” he said. The city should step up efforts to conserve energy through measures that encouraged businesses to cut their energy consumption and reduce their carbon footprint.

Proposed Idling Ban To Be Eased For Taxis

Feb 24th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Daniel Sin – Feb 24, 2009 – SCMP

The proposed ban on idling engines would be relaxed, but not dropped, for taxis, the environment chief told lawmakers.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah told the Legislative Council’s environmental affairs panel that the legislative proposal to ban idling engines would be revised for taxis. The change would exempt from the ban the first five taxis, rather than the first two, at a taxi stand, and taxis in a moving queue or in the process of passengers boarding or alighting.

The taxi trade had demanded that cabbies be given a full exemption. But Mr Yau was not willing to make that concession, saying it would lead other sectors to make the same demand, defeating the purpose of the legislation.

He also dismissed suggestions for exemptions during exceptionally hot or rainy weather, saying there was no such precedent in other jurisdictions adopting a ban.

The government would draft the law with a view to introducing the bill to Legco before mid-July, when the current legislative session ends, Mr Yau said.

Miriam Lau Kin-yee of the Liberal Party criticised Mr Yau for being ignorant of how the taxi trade operated, saying the revised proposal was not workable. “How would the sixth taxi driver, and those behind him in the queue, know whether to switch off the engine, especially when the queue is long or the view is obstructed?” she asked.

The Motor Transport Workers General Union called for the legislation to be shelved, saying the proposed measure would be ineffective in improving air quality while putting drivers’ and passengers’ health at greater risk.

Edwin Lau Che-feng, director of Friends of the Earth, said the legislation should take effect as early as possible, but flexibility in enforcement should be allowed in special circumstances such as extreme hot weather or heavy rain. He said the regulation could be fine-tuned as more experience was gained in making it work.

Green Initiatives Urged To Keep Prices Down And Create Jobs

Feb 16th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Albert Wong and Tiffany Lam, SCMP – Updated on Feb 16, 2009

The Civic Party and Green Sense have called on the government to use any surplus on green initiatives that can keep prices down and create jobs. The party said HK$6 billion should be set aside to subsidise buses to convert to cleaner engines.

The proposal is part of the party’s “green new deal” – regular proposals to create a greener city while offering more business opportunities.

It referred to studies showing air pollution costs the city HK$1.5 billion a year in direct health costs, and HK$21 billion in lost productivity. The HK$6 billion would go towards either fixing after-treatment devices onto current buses by the end of this year, or replacing buses at least 14 years old with ones that run on the latest green engines by 2010. There have been a range of forecasts on the government’s fiscal situation, with predictions ranging from a small surplus to a small deficit.

Conservancy group Green Sense issued several talking points, urging the government to use HK$11 billion to create a “greener economy”.

It proposed the government shell out HK$4 billion to develop renewable energy, creating 7,000 jobs for architects and engineers; HK$3 billion should be allotted to buttress the city’s recycling facilities; and HK$2 billion could be used to promote green roofs to reduce the heat-island effect.

Green Sense also said HK$1.5 billion should be used to improve the efficiency of air conditioners, with the rest spent on policies such as promoting eco-tourism and developing a local market for organic foods. It estimated the package should generate 17,200 jobs.

Air Quality Standards Review

Jan 24th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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The following letter was sent to the Director of Environmental Protection by Clear The Air:

Director of Environmental Protection – ENB

24th January 2009

Air Quality Standards Review

Dear Sir,

We are writing to express our NGO’s concern that Hong Kong’s air pollution is damaging local residents’ and visitors’ health and that the Administration’s belated current measures to address the problems remain ineffective whilst simply reporting platitudes.

Hong Kong is an extremely wealthy and developed first world city with ample resources to reduce air pollution , given the will to do so, and yet we know from the Hedley Environmental Index that last year alone 1,155 people died prematurely, there were over 83,000 avoidable hospital bed days, and 7.25 million doctors’ visits which were directly attributable to the toxic effects of local air pollution; this was at a minimum conservative cost of over HK$2.3 billion to society. We also know that for the major part of the year, the major pollution sources were locally generated. Our local power stations in 2007 burned 3 times more coal than they did in 1997 and 40% less gas than in 1999. Their greed is killing people. Perhaps you should suggest Exxon executives come and live here with their children ?

Given this evidence, we call on the Administration to demonstrate its commitment to imminent improvement of public health and reduction of resultant health costs by setting the World Health Organization’s Air Quality Guidelines as the new Air Quality Standards for Hong Kong, and to set out a strategy on how it intends to achieve these Standards. Without gazetted Standards the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle cannot be effective.

In this strategy please address all the major sources of pollution, but please apply particular urgency to reducing emissions from marine vessels and non Euro V diesel on road / off road vehicles. We encourage you to enact large increases in road tax for non Euro V diesel trucks, vans and buses (thereby making these vehicle owners trade up to Euro V) and to insist forthwith on low sulphur bunker fuel use within Hong Kong waters. We appreciate that the emissions from local power stations might soon be reduced following your Department’s belated requirement that flue gas desulphurization equipment is installed as well as Nox burners. In addition the level of the Standards you set MUST therefore require the power companies apply Best Available Current Technology and fuel mix and that includes agglomerators which can catch the lethal PM0.1 ultrafine and PM2.5 heavy metal emissions which the Electrostatic Precipitators cannot currently catch.

We would stress that Air Quality Standards and a clean air strategy that do not lead to rapid improvements in public health cannot be considered an acceptable outcome of the Review and action is required, not further consultation of a public that has already grown tired of this Government’s lack of decisive action.
Yours faithfully,

James Middleton
Chairman Energy Committee

Exemption From Idling Ban For Red Minibuses Too Broad

Jan 15th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Exemption from idling ban for red minibuses too broad, greens say

Peter So – Updated on Jan 15, 2009 – SCMP

Green activists say proposed exemptions for red minibuses parked with idling engines are too broad.

A government source said earlier that any two red minibuses plying the same route would be exempted from a proposed ban on idling engines if there were passengers in the first vehicle waiting at a stop.

Clean Air Action Group convenor Yolanda Ng Yuen-ting said that that would not help improve air quality in busy districts.

She said a stop for red minibuses usually had buses plying many routes and the vehicles parked separately.

“The exemption virtually allows all the vehicles to park without shutting off their engines,” Ms Ng said.

She feared the exemption would make a ban difficult to enforce.

Phil Heung Fu-lap, vice-chairman of Clean The Air, called for a ban without any exemptions.

Meanwhile, Annelise Connell, honorary secretary of Mini Spotters, said many red minibuses had been waiting for passengers on the street, outside minibus stops, but police seldom took action against them.

She said she had doubts that the police had enough manpower to enforce the ban on idling engines if the law was passed.

Ms Ng said a hotline allowing people to report cases of illegal parking and idling engines should be established.

Clear the Air: Letter to Legco Member On HK Air Pollution Policy

Jan 8th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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The following letter was sent to the Legco Member by Clear The Air:

8th January 2009

Dear Legco Members,

Clear the Air commends the Legco motion to pressure the Government to act by adopting WHO standards at an appropriate level and not at emerging nation levels which are lower than we have now. http://147.8.71.207/pollution/graph.php

We fail to see how ARUP, the consultants appointed to perform the AQO study , could possibly know more than the eminent researchers used by WHO in formulating its standards. We see no benefit in the EPD further engaging the public in consultations on our pea soup air and delaying matters further.

Our major pollution sources that damage health (moreso the growing lungs of our children) are our coal burning power stations , old diesel trucks and busses, ocean vessels burning high sulphur bunker fuel in the busiest port in the world , unburnt aircraft kerosene and for half of the year, imported pollution from the PRD.

The Government must also be forced to accelerate the use of the 52 million cubic meters of methane currently being flared off from NENT, WENT and SENT landfills. In the UK Gasrec Ltd has produced a diesel fuel replacement from landfill methane, Liquid Biomethane to replace diesel use in vehicles.

In San Antonio Texas, human waste will be used to produce methane to power the whole city. In Rwanda a prison is run by electricity powered from the same source. In Hong Kong instead, Government is calling for quotes to build and operate a sludge incinerator rather than taking heed of the San Antonio project.
http://environment.about.com/od/fossilfuels/a/human_waste.htm

The power companies are burning more and more polluting coal. In 2007 CLP burned 3 times more coal than in 1997. In 2007 CLP used 40% less clean natural gas than in 1999 whilst producing more electricity. HK Electric has only one gas turbine capable of 335 MWh and produced only 17% of its product with gas last year.

The Government must insist on these WHO AQO standards and the power companies will comply by using BACT (Best Available Current Technology). If the standards are set too leniently the power companies can benefit from burning more Indonesian cheap coal whilst still meeting the emission standards.

The technology is available such as Indigo Agglomerators. http://www.indigotechnologies.com.au/. If you study the technical documentation available on this site
you will see how the tiny particulates reduce visibility opacity and add to the haze layer. The sky might be blue but the air we breathe is still smoggy grey and laden with these particulates. For the cost of 17 days’ coal supply CLP could retrofit a further 15 agglomerators and clear our air. HKEH would cost even less to do the same.

Only now are the power companies fitting Flue Gas Desulphurisation and NOx burner technology. In fact the super heat NOx burners create another problem in that they ‘crack’ the soot particles into lethal PM2.5 (report available). Current Electrostatic Precipitators in the power station stacks catch only 99% of soot particles and the remaining PM2.5 they cannot catch is then belched into the air. That is several thousand tonnes of lethal particles per year, let alone the greenhouse CO2. Hong Kong currently has no PM2.5 standard and PM2.5 is the killer; neither does it have any CO2 controls.

PM2.5 is a particulate with a diameter 1/30 of a human hair , it carries heavy metals and poisons from the coal and diesel combustion processes , cannot be stopped by nose hairs and so enters deep into the lungs.

It seems Hong Kong has a NATO Administration – No Action Talk Only.

Yours sincerely,

James Middleton

Chairman
Energy Committee
www.cleartheair.org.hk

Reference:  New Hong Kong Air Pollution Policy Proposed

An Interview of Christian Masset on Topic of Air Pollution in Hong Kong

Dec 12th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
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Christian Masset, Chairman of CTA, Bloomberg – 12 Dec 2008

Chairman of CTA, Christian Masset, was interviewed on 12 Dec 08 and broadcast in Bloomberg. He talked about the actions Government should take to clear the air in Hong Kong, even in the situation of recent economic crisis.

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=53691208472&oid=18005249752

Water Front Bike Ride For a Pollution Free Hong Kong 3

Dec 4th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
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“ BURN FAT NOT OIL “
from Sheung Wan to Shau Kei Wan

Supported by :

HK Cycling Alliance
and

Sunday 7th December 2008 Time : 14:00 to 17:00
Press meeting place : 14:00 Cadogan Street Temporary Garden Kennedy Town

To highlight the growing demand for bicycle paths and concrete measures to reduce air pollution, as well as to make the harbour front more enjoyable to the public, the third such Waterfront Bikeride will take place on the 7th Dec. 08, starting at 14:00 from Western, Gadogan Street to Eastern, Shau Kei Wan typhoon shelter.

A petition will be circulated among participants to the ride and the public that will ask relevant government departments the inclusion of bicycle paths along the harbour to answer the growing aspirations of the public for a pollution free Hong Kong and a bicycle friendly harbour front.

The petition together with collected signatures will be presented to the Harbour Enhancement Committee, consultant, to the Town Planning Board. The Bike Ride serves to show that Hong Kong people in par with residents of other major harbour cities feel the need to enjoy individual, pollution free, transportation provided by bicycles on the condition that the infrastructure exists to make it safe. In this regard, Hong Kong lags far behind other Asian cities like : Osaka, Shanghai, Singapore, and KaoHsiung, that have understood this growing trend from their urban residents, to allow for bicycles a right to safely move in the city, which Hong Kong hasn’t.

Hong Kong side town planning doesn’t yet allow the right for safe bicycle transportation and this Third Bikeride is intended to show Government the appropriateness of such mode of transportation in a modern metropolis.

The trend for more environmentally friendly urban lifestyles are nowhere ignored from Europe to North America and from South America to China, so it rests on the Hong Kong authorities to provide for such bicycle friendly infrastructure in its town planning blueprint to answer the legitimate aspiration of its residents for a cleaner and healthier city.

燒脂零排放，香港更健康 ‘Burn Fat, Not Oil’ for Pollution Free Hong Kong
無污染香港海旁單車（第三）遊
3rd ride of Water-front Bike-ride for Pollution Free Hong Kong’
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=49385386032&ref=nf#/event.php?eid=88988680370

Ride route:
2:00 Assemble / press briefing Gadogan Street Temporary Garden, Kennedy Town
2:30 Depart from Gadogan Street Temporary Garden, Kennedy Town
3:30 15mins Break Golden Bauhinia Square (to join riders from Kowloon)
3:45 Depart From Golden Bauhinia Square
4:45 Shau Kei Wan typhoon shelter
5:00 Closing of event.

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