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Roadside
Bus pollution After embarrassment over the additional NO2 produced by the particulate filter traps on buses Govt is now going to pay for SCR which should have been mandatory in the first place
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HK chamber urges Tsang to think big on air pollution
South China Morning Post – 28 June 2011
The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce has sent a letter to Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen urging him to take action on roadside pollution. “What Hong Kong people have been yearning for … is to see the return of the blue sky, so that we might wrestle back the place we used to know from the smog’s stranglehold,” the HKGC says in the letter, which is signed by its chairman Anthony Wu Ting-yuk.
The letter calls for action on a number of fronts and urges Tsang “to think big,” in his final year as chief executive.
It takes on board, without mentioning them, the arguments that have been pushed by the Civic Exchange and Clean Air Network. The letter says a regional solution is required to deal with the overall air pollution. “But for residents going about their daily lives and people working in much of the urban areas,it is roadside pollution that brings tears to our eyes.” It urges the swift replacement of old buses and trucks still on the road. The chamber says that when it consults its members about what they would want if they had one wish, “The resounding response is clean air.”
The chamber says there is an overwhelming desire within the community for faster progress, noting that the two-year trial scheme involving six hybrid buses, “falls far short of the sort of progress that the vast majority of our community has been hoping to see”. In a plea that is verging on the passionate, the chamber says, “Chief executive, you must lean on the clean air issue and display your leadership in hastening the delivery of a solution,” since it is driving away business, “and harms the health of those who stay”.
Turning to other matters, the chamber urges the chief executive to take steps to ease social tensions by giving people the wherewithal to compete in Hong Kong’s knowledge society through training and education. It asks for greater sensitivity from the government in its handling of the minimum wage, lower taxes for small and medium-sized businesses, and a general reduction in profits tax. The chamber wants closer discussions over the crafting of the competition law to ward of unintended consequences of its implementation. It also criticises the government’s action on the provision of international education places, which it says smacks of “short-termism”. Providing more places, the chamber says, is not just an issue for expatriates; it is also desired by local middle-class families for their children.
So come on Donald. You’ve got one more year to think big. Don’t waste it. You can be the man that finally does something meaningful to clean Hong Kong’s awful roadside pollution, which is increasingly being recognised as a serious threat to public health.
KMB facing loss from fuel costs
South China Morning Post 21st May 2011
Kowloon Motor Bus (KMB) could soon apply for another fare increase. Its management is warning that, for the first time in a decade, it could make a loss.
Hong Kong’s largest bus operator – whose profit contribution to holding company Transport International Holdings (SEHK: 0062) has shrunk over the years – raised its fares by an average of 3.6 per cent on Sunday.
But the group’s managing director, Edmond Ho Tat-man, said the HK$200 million a year the fare increase would generate would not fully cover its fuel costs, which are expected to increase by HK$500 million this year.
“We are not making enough to cover our expenses. If oil prices don’t fall, we will be in the red this year,” Ho said.
KMB’s listed flagship Transport International, which makes money from leasing and selling property at its former depots and operating local coach services and public transport in Shenzhen and Beijing, reported a net profit of HK$866 million last year, nearly 30 per cent above that of 2009.
More than half the profit came from sales and interest earnings from property projects in Lai Chi Kok, including offices, shopping malls and luxury apartment block the Manhattan Hill. Excluding two one-off gains, its franchised bus operation accounted for just HK$243.3 million of its profits, down 38.4 per cent from 2009.
The company blamed that drop in profit on fuel costs, which were HK$1.14 billion last year and made up nearly a fifth of KMB’s expenses. The price of the near-zero-sulphur diesel the company uses jumped from US$86 per barrel in July – when KMB sparked a public outcry by proposing average fare rises of 8.6 per cent – to US$138 per barrel last month.
Ho said 60 per cent of KMB’s 380 routes were losing money – an all-time high. “Most of these routes overlap with rail lines and are seriously underused. Some trips, even at peak periods, carry less than 15 passengers but our proposals to trim or remove them are always opposed by district councillors.”
Route restructuring can only get tougher in the next two years, with elections being held for district councils and the legislature. Councillors will be particularly reluctant to agree to reduce public services. Last year councillors rejected seven of KMB’s 16 applications to trim routes; just nine of its 3,800-strong bus fleet were taken off the road as a result.
KMB hopes to import at least 10 supercapacitor buses – an electric model that recharges via an overhead cable at bus stops – by the end of next year. Deputy managing director Evan Auyang said it hopes the technology will be mature enough by then for KMB to adopt it rather than buying diesel-powered buses that meet the European Union’s new Euro IV emission standards.
The group’s shares closed up 0.87 per cent at HK$23.20. Auyang said the market was worried Euro VI buses could use more fuel than Euro V models since they will require extra power to reduce emissions of pollutants such as nitrogen oxide.
Top court appeal over mega bridge
HK Standard — 5 May 2011
The government is to appeal against a court ruling that quashed the environmental permit for the Hong Kong- Zhuhai-Macau bridge in a move that may further delay construction.
The action will be taken in the Court of Final Appeal this week on the grounds it is not mandatory under the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance for the government to assess air quality without the project in place, a source said.
The source said the authorities are also preparing to counter the High Court’s claim that the assessment report is “substandard” and that the government needs to reassess the environmental impact of proposed boundary-crossing facilities.
Last month, Chu Yee-wah, a 65-year-old Tung Chung resident who is in poor health, successfully argued the Environmental Protection Department had failed to conduct the necessary assessments before granting permits for the construction of the mega bridge, which passes close to her residence.
Chu’s lawyer, Alan Wong Hok-ming, said yesterday the legal battle could drag on for six months or more.
Work on the Hong Kong section of the bridge was scheduled to begin late last year and be completed in 2016, but work has not yet started because of the lawsuit.
Meanwhile, the earlier High Court ruling has had a knock-on effect, with the MTR Corp withdrawing impact assessment reports for its Sha Tin-Central rail link.
A transport advisory body had raised concerns over the progress of the 17-kilometer line.
Transport Advisory Committee chairman Rimsky Yuen Kwok-keung said if many changes are needed, the railway operator may postpone the public consultation exercise scheduled to end early next year.
Sunny weather blamed for high spring pollution
South China Morning Post — 26th April, 2011
| People who queued to buy a dehumidifier in anticipation of a foggy, humid spring should probably have bought an air purifier instead. The year’s first quarter has been unusually bright and dry and scientists are looking into the possibility that this is why the air was also unusually dirty.
This spring has been one of the most polluted on record, especially on the roadside. The air pollution index was at a very high level for about a third of the January-March period, almost three times longer than during the same period last year when dust from a mainland sandstorm hit the city. Air quality was worst in Central, where 912 hours of very high readings were registered in the quarter. This was followed by 808 hours in Causeway Bay and 488 in Mong Kok. A very high level reading of 100 or more means at least one of the air pollutants being monitored has surpassed the air quality objectives set by the Environmental Protection Department in 1987. Exposure to bad air pollution can cause or aggravate respiratory problems or heart disease. Another indicator of air pollution, reduced visibility, also set record highs in the first quarter. The number of hours with visibility falling to below 8 kilometres, excluding days with high humidity and fog, surged to 190 and 207 hours in February and March, the highest ever for each of the two months, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. Figures for pollutant concentrations, separate from the air pollution index, show roadside nitrogen dioxide levels surged by 21 per cent. The department blamed less rain and stronger sunshine for the increased pollution. “The weather was in general dry with rainfall low,” a spokesman said. “Air pollutants would thus stay in the atmosphere instead of being washed out by the rain. In addition, there was less cloud cover than normal, which caused solar radiation that promoted photochemical smog formation.” But Professor Alexis Lau Kai-hon, an atmospheric scientist from the University of Science and Technology, said vehicle emissions should take most of the blame. “I did not notice any major changes in regional pollution and this no doubt suggests the air quality deterioration by the roadside is of our own making,” he said. “Year after year, the city’s vehicle fleet is ageing and will emit more pollution. But we do not have any system, such as thorough vehicle maintenance and repair, to monitor the changes.” Professor Wong Tao, a Polytechnic University air pollution specialist, said the weather, still dominated more by air from the north than that from the ocean in the south, definitely contributed to poor air quality. But he believed more vehicle use in the improving economy and poor air circulation in a city dominated by high-rise buildings were also factors in pushing up roadside pollution. “Although it is officially spring now, the weather actually looks like autumn where it is drier and cooler. The lack of rain also meant that pollutants in the air could not be washed to the ground,” he said. Observatory figures show last month was the driest March ever, with rainfall about a third of normal. Professor Johnny Chan Chung-leung, a veteran weather scientist at City University’s school of energy and environment, also believes the unusual weather had something to do with the pollution. “I don’t think there has been a substantial increase in emissions so meteorological conditions might be at play,” he said. Chan said weaker northerly winds might not be conducive to dispersion of air pollution, while the cooler-than-usual weather might create more frequent inversion layers – warm air above cool air – that also block dispersion of pollutants. A spokesman for the department said changes in air quality should be measured on a long-term basis, and pollutant concentrations were more reliable indicators than number of hours at an air pollution index level. From 1999 to last year, the concentration of respirable suspended particles fell by 34 per cent and sulphur dioxide by 63 per cent. But nitrogen dioxide surged by 18 per cent in the same period.
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Hong Kong Engine Pollution Ban Hurt by Exemptions as Smog Climbs to Record
REUTERS 7 March 2011
Vehicles are the second-biggest source of pollution in Hong Kong, after power stations, and their numbers rose 9.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to the government.
Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — Lee Quane, regional director for Asia at human resources company ECA International Ltd., talks about Hong Kong’s air pollution. The city’s roadside air pollution may reach record levels during the third quarter, according to calculations by Bloomberg News, as the local government comes under increasing pressure to bolster its cleanup measures. Quane talks from Singapore with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Hong Kong will ban idling engines to reduce vehicle emissions from as early as September, after pollution climbed to a record last year. A 14-year battle to curtail roadside smog was hurt by exemptions to the bill.
Drivers will be fined HK$320 ($41) should they idle engines for more than three minutes, according to the bill passed March 5. Government exemptions, including to cabs queuing at stands, lessened the impact of the law, environmental groups said.
New World First Bus Services Ltd., Citybus Ltd. and groups including the Motor Transport Workers General Union have fought the legislation, a proposal first sent for public consultation in 2000. Roadside smog reached “very high” levels for a record one in four days in 2010. Pollution is linked to 4,800 additional deaths between 2007 and 2010, the University of Hong Kong said Jan. 19, and is hurting the city’s ability to lure talent, according to the General Chamber of Commerce.
“The bill has been watered down a lot as the government caved in to political pressure from the transport sector,” said Edwin Lau, director at the Friends of the Earth (HK). “We don’t think this could bring significant improvement to the worsening air, but it’s better than nothing.”
Changes to the bill included the exemption of all cabs at stands, from just two vehicles in line, and allowing some buses to be exempted should they have at least one passenger on board.
More Vehicles
“The evisceration of this bill by transport interests demonstrates lawmakers’ inability to defend public health over the interests of narrow constituencies,” said Joanne Ooi, chief executive officer of Clean Air Network, a lobby group.
Vehicles are the second-biggest source of pollution in Hong Kong, after power stations, and their numbers rose 9.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to the government.
“We have carefully examined the views of the community, the needs of drivers and the transport trades, and balanced the effectiveness of the proposal,” the Environmental Protection Department said in an e-mailed statement. “It will certainly help reduce the environmental nuisances and the associated health hazard caused by idling vehicles.”
Hong Kong’s efforts to reduce pollution date back to Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s predecessor, Tung Chee-Hwa, who in his maiden policy speech in 1997 said “traffic fumes” and pollution swept in from China are problems the city must tackle.
Nitrogen Dioxide
While pollutants from neighboring China declined after an emission control pact with the Guangdong provincial government, the average level of nitrogen dioxide, a major auto pollutant that will shorten lives after prolonged exposure, was almost triple the European Union’s safety level from January to June last year in Central.
“We risk doing something too late,” said Fu Xiaowen, assistant professor in transport economics and policy at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “Pollution is slowly killing us. The government should do more, whether in terms of offering tax breaks or funding electric cars.”
Hong Kong said in its budget last month it is trying out hybrid buses and plans to replace government vehicles with electric ones. Nissan Motor Co. agreed to advance supply of its Leaf electric car to Hong Kong, the government said January.
Still, a government plan to replace older vehicles on the road has met with objections from bus companies concerned about incurring extra costs.
Citybus and New World, which run the most bus routes on Hong Kong Island, have resisted, saying they won’t speed the replacement of older, more polluting buses.
Older Vehicles
“We will follow a schedule for replacing buses based on their age to avoid wasting resources and increasing pressure for fare increases,” Citybus and New World, 50 percent owned by a unit of developer New World Development Co., said in a statement to Bloomberg. Buses will be replaced after serving 17 to 18 years, said the companies.
Buses account for as much as 40 percent of traffic in the busiest areas, and about 25 percent of the franchised buses have engines with emissions worse than the European Union II standard. Singapore banned such vehicles in 2001. There are five EU standards, with I the least stringent and V the most.
The tussle highlights the struggle of Asia’s third-richest economy to convince transport companies to pay for cleaner vehicles as a survey released in December said a quarter of respondents would consider leaving because of pollution.
“The pollution problem is an underestimated threat to the viability of Hong Kong as a center,” said Anthony Limbrick, chief investment officer of hedge fund Pure Capital Ltd. “It is not an environment that is easy to take a family that takes fresh air for granted to.”
Smoggy Shopping
The daily average pollution level in Central registered as “very high,” which triggers a health warning, for 86 days in 2010, up from the 44 days in 2009. Central, which has Mandarin Oriental International Ltd. (MAND)’s hotels and stores of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, was the worst among the 14 districts monitored. Last week, pollution reached “very high” levels in the five business days in Central.
“It’s obvious that the air is getting worse as we see smoky smog covering the harbor more than ever,” said Isabella Chan, sales and marketing director at Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) Ltd. “Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe on the street.”
About 35 percent of the franchised buses would be retired by 2015, with costs pegged at between HK$2 million and HK$3 million each, the government said. Replacing all of them now isn’t possible, and trials are being conducted to fit emission- reduction devices to buses, Environment Secretary Edward Yau said Jan. 5.
Peregrine Cust, founder of Prana Capital, chose Singapore over Hong Kong when he moved his investment team from London in April partly because of the air, he said.
“A clean, healthy, friendly environment in Singapore was a big consideration,” said Cust. “The pollution obscured the Kowloon view from Central. You could almost taste it!”
Hong Kong Engine Pollution Ban Hurt by Exemptions as Smog Climbs to Record
Hong Kong Bans Idling Engines in 14-Year Battle Against Smog
Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Vehicles are the second-biggest source of pollution in Hong Kong, after power stations, and their numbers rose 9.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to the government.
Vehicles are the second-biggest source of pollution in Hong Kong, after power stations, and their numbers rose 9.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to the government. Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg
Sept. 20 (Bloomberg) — Lee Quane, regional director for Asia at human resources company ECA International Ltd., talks about Hong Kong’s air pollution. The city’s roadside air pollution may reach record levels during the third quarter, according to calculations by Bloomberg News, as the local government comes under increasing pressure to bolster its cleanup measures. Quane talks from Singapore with Susan Li on Bloomberg Television’s “First Up.” (Source: Bloomberg)
Hong Kong will ban idling engines to reduce vehicle emissions from as early as September, after pollution climbed to a record last year. A 14-year battle to curtail roadside smog was hurt by exemptions to the bill.
Drivers will be fined HK$320 ($41) should they idle engines for more than three minutes, according to the bill passed March 5. Government exemptions, including to cabs queuing at stands, lessened the impact of the law, environmental groups said.
New World First Bus Services Ltd., Citybus Ltd. and groups including the Motor Transport Workers General Union have fought the legislation, a proposal first sent for public consultation in 2000. Roadside smog reached “very high” levels for a record one in four days in 2010. Pollution is linked to 4,800 additional deaths between 2007 and 2010, the University of Hong Kong said Jan. 19, and is hurting the city’s ability to lure talent, according to the General Chamber of Commerce.
“The bill has been watered down a lot as the government caved in to political pressure from the transport sector,” said Edwin Lau, director at the Friends of the Earth (HK). “We don’t think this could bring significant improvement to the worsening air, but it’s better than nothing.”
Changes to the bill included the exemption of all cabs at stands, from just two vehicles in line, and allowing some buses to be exempted should they have at least one passenger on board.
More Vehicles
“The evisceration of this bill by transport interests demonstrates lawmakers’ inability to defend public health over the interests of narrow constituencies,” said Joanne Ooi, chief executive officer of Clean Air Network, a lobby group.
Vehicles are the second-biggest source of pollution in Hong Kong, after power stations, and their numbers rose 9.6 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to the government.
“We have carefully examined the views of the community, the needs of drivers and the transport trades, and balanced the effectiveness of the proposal,” the Environmental Protection Department said in an e-mailed statement. “It will certainly help reduce the environmental nuisances and the associated health hazard caused by idling vehicles.”
Hong Kong’s efforts to reduce pollution date back to Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s predecessor, Tung Chee-Hwa, who in his maiden policy speech in 1997 said “traffic fumes” and pollution swept in from China are problems the city must tackle.
Nitrogen Dioxide
While pollutants from neighboring China declined after an emission control pact with the Guangdong provincial government, the average level of nitrogen dioxide, a major auto pollutant that will shorten lives after prolonged exposure, was almost triple the European Union’s safety level from January to June last year in Central.
“We risk doing something too late,” said Fu Xiaowen, assistant professor in transport economics and policy at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “Pollution is slowly killing us. The government should do more, whether in terms of offering tax breaks or funding electric cars.”
Hong Kong said in its budget last month it is trying out hybrid buses and plans to replace government vehicles with electric ones. Nissan Motor Co. agreed to advance supply of its Leaf electric car to Hong Kong, the government said January.
Still, a government plan to replace older vehicles on the road has met with objections from bus companies concerned about incurring extra costs.
Citybus and New World, which run the most bus routes on Hong Kong Island, have resisted, saying they won’t speed the replacement of older, more polluting buses.
Older Vehicles
“We will follow a schedule for replacing buses based on their age to avoid wasting resources and increasing pressure for fare increases,” Citybus and New World, 50 percent owned by a unit of developer New World Development Co., said in a statement to Bloomberg. Buses will be replaced after serving 17 to 18 years, said the companies.
Buses account for as much as 40 percent of traffic in the busiest areas, and about 25 percent of the franchised buses have engines with emissions worse than the European Union II standard. Singapore banned such vehicles in 2001. There are five EU standards, with I the least stringent and V the most.
The tussle highlights the struggle of Asia’s third-richest economy to convince transport companies to pay for cleaner vehicles as a survey released in December said a quarter of respondents would consider leaving because of pollution.
“The pollution problem is an underestimated threat to the viability of Hong Kong as a center,” said Anthony Limbrick, chief investment officer of hedge fund Pure Capital Ltd. “It is not an environment that is easy to take a family that takes fresh air for granted to.”
Smoggy Shopping
The daily average pollution level in Central registered as “very high,” which triggers a health warning, for 86 days in 2010, up from the 44 days in 2009. Central, which has Mandarin Oriental International Ltd. (MAND)’s hotels and stores of LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, was the worst among the 14 districts monitored. Last week, pollution reached “very high” levels in the five business days in Central.
“It’s obvious that the air is getting worse as we see smoky smog covering the harbor more than ever,” said Isabella Chan, sales and marketing director at Franklin Templeton Investments (Asia) Ltd. “Sometimes I feel like I can’t breathe on the street.”
About 35 percent of the franchised buses would be retired by 2015, with costs pegged at between HK$2 million and HK$3 million each, the government said. Replacing all of them now isn’t possible, and trials are being conducted to fit emission- reduction devices to buses, Environment Secretary Edward Yau said Jan. 5.
Peregrine Cust, founder of Prana Capital, chose Singapore over Hong Kong when he moved his investment team from London in April partly because of the air, he said.
“A clean, healthy, friendly environment in Singapore was a big consideration,” said Cust. “The pollution obscured the Kowloon view from Central. You could almost taste it!”
To contact the reporters on this story: Sophie Leung in Hong Kong at sleung59@bloomberg.net; Marco Lui in Hong Kong atmlui11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Paul Panckhurst in Hong Kong at ppanckhurst@bloomberg.net
Hong Kong air pollution claims 1,860 lives a year, experts say
21 Feb. 2011
Hong Kong – Worsening air pollution in Hong Kong is causing 1,860 extra deaths a year and costing the city 2.5 billion US dollars in health costs and lost earnings, experts said Monday.
A new study by a team of scientists from the University of Hong Kong team said the failure to clean up the city’s notorious smog was having a deadly impact on people’s health.
They estimated that air pollution was responsible for 92,745 extra hospital bed days and 5.2 million doctor visits.
The researchers from the university’s School of Public Health called on the government to comply with World Health Organization guidelines rather than its own proposed air pollution limits.
Government regulations are too lax and unlikely to provide effective environmental regulation or lead to sustained air quality improvements, the report concluded.
‘There is an urgent need for the government to adopt a scientifically valid approach to the setting of air quality regulations which will protect population health,’ lead author Lai Hak-kah said
Pollution in the densely populated city of 7 million has worsened dramatically in the past two decades and has been blamed for causing respiratory problems and forcing some foreigninvestors to move away.
Much of the city’s notorious smog blows down from factories in neighboring southern China, although some of it is caused by vehicle emissions.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/health/news/article_1620786.php/Hong-Kong-air-pollution-claims-1-860-lives-a-year-experts-say
HKU study rejects govt air quality plan
RTHK 21 FEB 2011
Researchers at the University of Hong Kong have warned that implementing the government’s proposed objectives to improve air quality would have a negative impact. A study they carried out predicts that adopting the measures would result in higher levels of fine particulates and sulphur dioxide than at present.
Professor Anthony Hedley, who headed the study, said the government should adopt the more stringent guidelines recommended by the World Health Organisation. Otherwise, he said, poor air quality would cause more than 1,800 additional local deaths a year, and leave taxpayers with an annual bill of HK$20-billion.