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EPD

Government snubbing efforts by company to utilise solid waste

Jul 7th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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SCMP

In the article (“Nurturing growth”, June 22), Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen talked about “changing the relationship between government, business and the market”. This certainly seems to be the time to adjust the balance between these relationships.

Given that finances are tight, the government should encourage more private enterprises to participate in the development of Hong Kong.

From my recent experience with the Environmental Protection Department, the message I received is that private sector involvement in public services, such as waste management, is not encouraged even if it can demonstrate substantial savings and environmental benefits.

Green Island’s eco-co-combustion system is an environmentally friendly and cost-efficient waste management solution. Sludge and municipal solid waste would be used as a refuse-derived fuel at our cement plant. The system boasts a number of benefits. For the treatment of sludge and solid waste, it presents a significant upfront cost saving of more than HK$6 billion compared to the department’s proposal. With sludge and solid waste being used to replace at least 40 per cent of coal used in the cement plant, there will be a net improvement in total emissions. In addition, there will be no residue ash as it would be used as clinker in cement manufacturing.

Our proposal for sludge treatment has already been denied, while for the treatment of the sold waste, we understand the department’s upcoming tenders have restricted its proposed integrated waste management facility to either Tsang Tsui or Shek Kwu Chau, so our proposal cannot be considered.

The eco-co-combustion model represents a good example of how the private sector can participate in Hong Kong’s environmental development. Instead, we are being prevented from competing. We hope the department will take heed of Mr Tsang’s words and consider private participation and not just stick to the conventional government-owned design-build-operate model.

Don Johnston, executive director, Green Island Cement (Holdings)

Observatory Says Weather Conditions Likely to Improve

Jun 1st, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Simpson Cheung, SCMP – Jun 01, 2009

The city’s recent poor air quality was expected to improve soon, the Hong Kong Observatory said on Monday.

A spokesman for the observatory said the air quality was likely to get better because windy weather was helping to disperse pollutants.

The Roadside Air Pollution Index showed air pollution was very high in some major urban areas on Monday morning.

Causeway Bay recorded the highest level – at 135, while Mongkok was 110 and Central reached 114, the index showed.

The Environmental Protection Department said on Monday that Hong Kong’s calm weather conditions had affected the air quality.

And the Hedley Environmental Index – which measures the social and health impact that pollution – said on Monday levels were high enough to cause four premature deaths – and were the second highest levels recorded this year.

There has been considerable concern in Hong Kong in recent years about the impact pollution is having on people’s health and quality of life.

The Hedley Environmental Index website noted that “air pollution causes about 7 million additional doctor visits across the population in Hong Kong each year”.

The Environmental Protection Department said Hong Kong was facing two main air pollution problems. “One is local street-level pollution. The other is the regional smog problem,” it says.

The street level pollution is mainly caused by diesel vehicles in the city. However, smog is also generated by pollutants from factories, power plants and motor vehicles both in Hong Kong and southern China.

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James Middleton, Clear the Air says: hey EPD wake up, what about the coal burning power plants and the ships burning high sulphur oil ??

Pollutant Control Tightened

May 22nd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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EPD – 22 May 09

A new law has been gazetted to further control the emissions of volatile organic compounds – a major category of pollutants causing the smog that reduces Hong Kong’s visibility.

The Air Pollution Control (Volatile Organic Compounds) (Amendment) Regulation will extend the existing control on products containing such compounds to vehicle refinishing paints, vessel paints, pleasure-craft paints, adhesives and sealants.

It will ban the import and local manufacture of the newly-regulated products with such compound contents exceeding the prescribed limits.

The Environmental Protection Department said the compounds play a significant role in the formation of ozone and respirable suspended particulates. Hong Kong and Guangdong have a consensus to cut such compounds by 55% by 2010, on the basis of the emissions in 1997.

The department expects a further 700 tonnes of local volatile organic compound emissions will be cut when the extended control is fully implemented.

The law will be tabled at the Legislative Council on May 27 for negative vetting, after which it will be implemented in phases from January 1

Delta Plan ‘To Exclude Cut In CO2 Emissions’ Main Greenhouse Gas Left Out For A Decade

Mar 30th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Chloe Lai in Guangzhou, SCMP – Mar 30, 2009

Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, is likely to be excluded from the Pearl River Delta air quality management plan for a further decade.

The plan is due for renewal by the Guangdong and Hong Kong governments next year and the Environmental Protection Department is tight-lipped on whether CO2 will be included. But a source close to the Guangdong government said CO2 was likely to be excluded from the plan.

“The only possible way to have the greenhouse gas included in the monitoring is Hong Kong doing it internally, setting a model for Guangdong,” the source said.

Both sides are now discussing the next targets for 2020 and which emissions should be included.

Hong Kong and Guangdong agreed in 2002 to reduce emission of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, respirable suspended particulates and volatile organic compounds by 40 per cent, 20 per cent, 55 per cent and 55 per cent, respectively, by 2010.

The city is confident it will meet those targets, according to a mid-term review the Environmental Protection Department released early last year. But the department says Guangdong would have to implement additional control measures to meet them.

Hong Kong released 45 million tonnes of CO2 in 2006, according to government figures. This equals 6 tonnes per person, or 0.1 per cent of the world’s total emission.

Hong Kong’s principal source of CO2 emissions is power generation, which accounts for more than 60 per cent of the total. Green groups in Hong Kong have for years been urging the government to set an emission target on CO2.

The Environmental Protection Department has commissioned a consultancy study on climate change in Hong Kong which is due to be completed by the end of the year.

It will review and update the inventories of greenhouse gases in Hong Kong, characterise the impact of climate change on the city, and recommend additional policies and measures to reduce such emissions.

While the city is not obliged under the Kyoto Protocol to set any reduction targets for emissions, the government pledged along with other Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation economies in 2007 to reduce Hong Kong’s energy intensity by a quarter by 2030, with 2005 as the base year.

The UN is hosting a two-week meeting with 175 countries participating, including China, to craft a new agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012.

At a meeting between the Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and Guangdong party chief Wang Yang early this month, both sides agreed to jointly map out further arrangements on how to improve regional air quality.

It is understood authorities in Guangdong have started to decide on the province’s emission targets for the 12th five-year plan.

Chen Guangrong, deputy head of the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau, also hinted that the province would continue to exclude CO2 from its reduction targets.

“China is a developing country; there is no compulsory obligation for us to cut CO2 emissions under the Kyoto Protocol. But we are doing it voluntarily,” Mr Chen said.

Environmentalists hope the two governments will change their minds.

“There are many of things both sides need to do to improve regional air quality,” Conservancy Association spokesman Hung Wing-tat said. “They should build more monitoring stations, and including CO2 in the monitoring will give us a better picture of greenhouse gas emission in the area.”

Wang Canfa, an environmental expert at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said it was important for both governments to commit to cutting greenhouse gas emissions.

But it would be more appropriate to do so on a voluntary basis. “There is no law in China on cutting CO2, so it will be difficult for them to set a target and make it compulsory.”

City’s Air Is Bad For You, Australians Told Visitors From Down Under Get Pollution Alert

Mar 25th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Rosanne Barrett, SCMP – Mar 25, 2009

The Australian government has cited Hong Kong’s air pollution as a potential health issue, in a new travel warning to its citizens.

Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs issued the updated travel advice on Monday, which is sent to all subscribers and posted on its Smartraveller website.

scm_news_tearout25It comes amid the ongoing debate over how air pollution in the city should be monitored and whether World Health Organisation-approved targets for pollutants should be adopted.

The travel advice highlighted air pollution levels when Australians travelled to the city. “The levels of air pollution in Hong Kong may aggravate bronchial, sinus or asthma conditions,” it said.

“People with existing heart or respiratory illnesses should reduce physical exertion and outdoor activities on days when very high pollution levels are recorded.”

It advised visitors to check pollution levels on Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department website.

The Smartraveller website also highlighted pollution levels on the mainland, particularly those in the industrialised areas of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Although the site suggests the bad air may “aggravate bronchial, sinus or asthma conditions”, it does not offer advice to travellers to avoid activity.

Air-quality concerns regarding seasonal haze in Singapore and Thailand are also included.

A spokesman for the Australian department said the travel advice was changed during quarterly updating. Last night he could not say why air pollution was now included, when it had previously not been.

Clear The Air chairman Christian Masset said the warning made it clear that Hong Kong’s air quality was no longer just a local issue.

He said the warning could shame the city into acting faster to reduce fine particles known as PM2.5 and to phase out diesel engines, which he said would be “a good thing”.

He said tourists should be warned about pollution as it was “a fact”.

“They should be warned they might not see the harbour from The Peak. The tourists who have been fortunate enough to come when the wind was blowing the right way have nothing to complain about, but for others it might make them think twice about coming to Hong Kong.

“It is a major deterrent to developing a sound tourism industry.”

A spokesman for the Environmental Protection Department said pollution levels varied and normally did not affect residents’ and visitors’ daily activities.

Asked if visitors should be concerned, he said the government had taken measures to improve air quality, but added: “Hong Kong, like most metropolises in the world, has a heavy concentration of people and activities that could strain its air.”

He said roadside levels of respirable particulates, nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide had fallen by 21 per cent, 23 per cent and 19 per cent respectively since 1999.

The 2008 Lonely Planet travel guide said air pollution was “perhaps Hong Kong’s most pressing environmental problem”, causing up to 15,600 premature deaths each year.

Yesterday’s air pollution index was medium to high, with the Mong Kok roadside station recording the highest reading of 73.

Lawmakers Hit Out At Air-quality Targets

Mar 20th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Joyce Ng, SCMP – Mar 20, 2009

Lawmakers criticised the government yesterday for setting its targets for meeting World Health Organisation air quality guidelines so low, and for lacking a timetable for implementing them.

Their comments came at a meeting of the Legislative Council environmental affairs panel to discuss a report on the air quality objectives review, released last week.

Democrat Lee Wing-tat said many measures suggested in the review had been discussed for years, such as the electronic road-pricing system and low-emission zones.

“Has the government really decided to implement these measures? Otherwise, improving air quality will only remain empty talk,” he said.

Mr Lee also criticised the administration for choosing the lowest interim targets, and for dragging out the process.

Another Democrat, Kam Nai-wai, said the government justified the adoption of the least stringent standards by scare tactics, such as saying that electricity charges would rise by 20 per cent if half of the city’s power was generated by using natural gas.

He quoted a petition by Friends of the Earth that said all the measures would bring a health benefit worth HK$61.4 billion, which outweighed their cost of HK$28.5 billion.

Secretary for the Environment Edward Yau Tang-wah said pollutants such as carbon monoxide and lead would be controlled by the more stringent sets of standards.

Mr Yau and the consultant that conducted the review, Ove Arup, said it was unable to give a timetable for implementation. Ove Arup director Alan Kwok said: “The measures suggested for phase one are related to businesses and the community. We have to ask the public whether they accept the measures, and we need businesses to give us a timetable.”

The review suggested Hong Kong should adopt the least stringent of the WHO’s three sets of guidelines for sulfur dioxide and ozone, but relatively tougher limits for respirable suspended particles.

Nineteen first-phase measures, including increasing the use of natural gas, were identified as helping to meet the new objectives.

The consultant will complete a draft report in June after gathering views at a public forum today.

Public Forum To Look At Air-Quality Review

Mar 12th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Cheung Chi-fai – Updated on Mar 12, 2009 – SCMP

The government is inviting the public to attend a forum next week on the review of its air-quality objectives after consultants unveil initial results that will map out a strategy.

The forum will be held on March 20, a day after lawmakers are to be briefed by the consultant. An expert group that has steered the review since 2007 will also meet tomorrow to discuss the results.

Clean-air advocates have said environment officials will probably stick largely to their previous proposal of adopting what critics have described as standards for beginners. Hong Kong has been applying the same air-quality objectives for 21 years without review, lagging far behind the latest World Health Organisation guidelines, issued in 2005.

“We do not expect the consultant to come up with recommended standards very different from what has been mentioned before,” a source close to the expert group said.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen said in his last policy address that the city would adopt a set of minimum interim targets as a first step towards the ultimate targets. He also said the proportion of electricity generated by natural gas would be increased to at least one-half.

The source expected officials to make minor adjustments to these interim targets, such as tightening the limits on respirable suspended particles in the air. The consultant will release findings on the cost and projected health benefits.

One of the review’s key stakeholders, CLP Power, reported yesterday that its emissions of key pollutants dropped between 16 and 30 per cent last year, as it expanded natural-gas intake from its Hainan reserve, raising its share in the fuel mix from 23 to 28 per cent. Its carbon emission also fell 8 per cent.

Meanwhile, in a “green boat” project in collaboration with the University of Hong Kong’s department of mechanical engineering, a leisure junk owned by insurer Aviva has become the city’s first vessel to run on diesel, mixed with 5 per cent of bio-diesel refined from waste cooking oil.

It was also retrofitted with solar panels and a micro-wind turbine to power electrical devices on board.

Researchers said bio-diesel could help cut smoke emissions by 10 per cent. They hoped to eventually test an engine that runs 100 per cent on bio-diesel and a new smoke-reduction device for the boat.

Simon Phipps, managing director of Aviva, said the retrofit cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars was minimal compared with the health costs of doing nothing to tackle air pollution.

Demand To Step Up Monitoring Of Air Quality

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

Hong Kong should increase the number of air-quality monitoring stations, particularly at the roadside, and incorporate a measurement of very fine particles to give the public a better picture of the health risk it faces, a critic says.

The issue has been raised as the government plans to consult the public on the air-quality objectives review early this year amid pressure for it to adopt the World Health Organisation’s highest standards.

But the Environmental Protection Department said there was no need to enlarge the monitoring network, although it was willing to consider expanding its fine-particles measurements and publish them online.

The city has 14 air-quality monitoring stations – 11 measuring background readings and three roadside readings of five pollutants.

The stations measuring background readings reflect the regional pollution, and the roadside ones – in Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Central – gauge pollution posing a direct threat to people on the streets.

Only four general and one roadside station measure the level of fine particles – known as PM-2.5 – which overseas research has found to pose a greater health threat.

Last year, the annual reading of fine particles at roadside level in Central reached 41 micrograms per cubic metre of air, four times the WHO standard.

“It is worth studying the issue, given our unique city environment does not favour dispersion of pollutants,” said Alexis Lau Kai-hon, the manager of the Environmental Central Facility at the University of Science and
Technology.

However, Choy So-yuk, a North Point-based district councillor and a member of the Council for Sustainable Development, said it was far more important for the government to improve roadside air quality than to build
more stations.

“Everybody knows the air quality in North Point is far worse than in Central, even without a monitoring station,” she said.

Ms Choy said officials should focus more on getting rid of the wall effect in the city by cutting building heights, and increasing the number of green areas in busy parts of the city.

Air Quality In Need Of Attention

Feb 2nd, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Study proves air quality is still in need of attention

Updated on Feb 02, 2009 – SCMP

A clear sky and moderate air pollution index reading may seem favourable circumstances for a stroll, but they do not give the full picture. As we report today, a University of Science and Technology study has found that unnoticeable ultrafine particles not adequately measured by the Environmental Protection Department are ever-present, and in some locations, worryingly so. Small amounts are known to cause heart and breathing problems, particularly for the elderly. Higher measurement standards are clearly needed, as is greater effort to reducing the level of roadside pollutants. This is not to say that the government is failing us when it comes to cleaning up the environment. Improved visibility is a fact of life in some parts of the city. The concentration of several major roadside pollutants has fallen 20 per cent over the past decade. Eastern district has not had a reading of more than 100 on the air pollution index since 2005, and with the two other cleanest districts – Tai Po and Sha Tin – has recorded consistently improved figures.

Among the reasons are tighter vehicle emission standards, the introduction of ultra-low-sulfur diesel, the conversion of taxis and minibuses to LPG, and tougher control measures adopted by Guangdong province. All is not sweet air and light, of course – there is a lack of improvement in many other parts of the city. That the situation could be considerably worse than we think at roadsides takes the matter to quite another level.

Decades of air pollution studies have shown that the worse the air quality, the greater the risk of hospital stays and death from heart and lung disease. The fine particles in vehicle emissions have been determined to be more dangerous to health than gaseous pollutants. Microscopic particles – those measured by the university study but not widely taken into account by authorities – were especially troublesome because they could get into the bloodstream and more readily damage lung tissue. Particularly vulnerable were people with heart and lung problems and asthma, and the elderly.

Research at bus stops on Des Voeux Road in Central found invisible particulates were at alarming levels at points where buildings created a “canyon effect”. Levels dropped considerably in open spaces, underground passages and on elevated walkways. The readings are highly localised in nature. Nonetheless, we should be worried that waiting for a bus could be a health risk.

Our air quality standards are considerably lower than those recommended by the World Health Organisation. A government panel is finalising a study that will look into whether these should be adopted. It is clear that they should be – urgently.

More has to be done to cut roadside emissions. Hybrid and electric vehicles have to be encouraged. Urban design has to lessen the canyon effect. Doing so is in all our interests.

Sore Throats Thanks To Air

Jan 24th, 2009
by AdminCTA.
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Updated on Jan 24, 2009 – SCMP

I live in Kowloon East near the sea and on Thursday and Friday the air was filthy.

There was an obvious burning smell like a barbecue.

My children started coughing at night and we all needed to limit our time outdoors to avoid sore throats and general discomfort.

Based on this very crude performance indicator of the air smelling like London in the 1800s, the government’s performance is poor.

Even the “ban” on idling engines is too much for officials to handle properly.

It is very hard to take the Environmental Protection Department seriously.

The economic downturn will finally do more to help air quality than the department can organise itself.

P. Gilbert, Lam Tin

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