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Hong Kong, Shenzhen airports team up to provide “more options for travellers”

http://www.traveldailymedia.com/231063/hong-kong-shenzhen-airports-team-up-to-provide-more-options-for-travellers/

New agreement aimed at offering more travel options in Pearl River Delta

A new agreement has been signed that will strengthen the aviation links between Hong Kong and neighbouring Shenzhen.

Hong Kong’s Airport Authority (AA) has penned a deal with Shenzhen Airport Management Company that aims to “synergise the development” of the two cities’ airports.

The partnership was signed by Fred Lam, chief executive officer of the AA, and Wang Yang, president of the Shenzhen Airport Management Company.

“The agreement has been signed after many rounds of meetings between the two parties. The strengthened cooperation between the two airports can enhance the optimisation of airspace resources in PRD (Pearl River Delta) region,” said Lam. He added that the two airports will also support the medium- and long-term expansion plans of each other.

The agreement outlines various areas of cooperation between Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA) and Shenzhen Bao’an International Airport (SZIA). These include the establishment of a designated immigration channel at Shenzhen Bay for passengers and vehicles travelling between the two airports, and the enhancement of sea and land transport services.

The two parties will also work with airlines to develop “all-in-one” tickets that include hotel accommodation and transportation option such as flight, ferry and coach tickets.

AA said that the cooperation will provide “more options for travellers in terms of air ticket prices and flight schedules”.

At present, HKIA and SZIA operate the “Fly via Hong Kong” and “Fly via Shenzhen” services, which provide both passenger and baggage check-in services to travellers of the other airport. There are also 14 ferries and more than 80 coaches and limousines operating between the two hubs.

Why HK-Guangzhou express will take more than 48 minutes

The time saving the government touts as a chief benefit of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link is unlikely to materialize, Ming Pao Daily reported Tuesday.

There may be a total of six stations in the mainland section of the rail link, instead of the four the Hong Kong government has been claiming, the newspaper said.

Since it applied to the Legislative Council in 2009 for funding for the line, the government has said there will be only four stations on the mainland side and that the journey between Hong Kong and Guangzhou will be shortened to 48 minutes by express rail from the 100 minutes the existing train service takes.

Ming Pao reporters have, however, seen for themselves that a total of six stations are ready or under construction in the mainland section of the express link.

New People’s Party legislative councillor Michael Tien Puk-sun, who chairs Legco’s panel on transport, and labor constituency lawmaker Bill Tang Ka-piu, its vice-chairman, said they were not aware of the additional two stations.

They urged the government to provide an explanation.

Responding to media inquiries about the number of railway stations and the number of stops on the train journey between Hong Kong and Guangzhou, the Transport and Housing Bureau said it has been in regular communication with the relevant mainland authorities about the operational arrangements for the railway and that the discussions are ongoing.

In the documents the government submitted to Legco in 2009, the four stations in the mainland section are named as Futian, Longhua (now renamed to Shenzhen North), Humen and Shibi (now renamed to Guangzhou South).

At a Legco meeting earlier this month, Secretary for Transport and Housing Anthony Cheung Bing-leung was still saying there will be only four stations on the link’s mainland side.

However, the reporters found two additional stations, Guangming Cheng and Qingsheng, which started operating four years ago, on Dec. 26, 2011.

The official website of the high-speed railway shows that of the average 170 train journeys made between Shenzhen North and Guangzhou South each day, only 18 percent are non-stop.

The other 82 percent make at least one stop, mostly at Humen Station.

Reporters who took the express train found that it requires 36 minutes to travel from Shenzhen North to Guangzhou South with one stop in between.

As Hong Kong and Shenzhen North are over 38 kilometers apart, the journey between them will take about 23 minutes.

The entire journey could take about 59 minutes, and even longer if more stops are made.

Albert Lai Kwong-tak, convener of the Professional Commons, said the Hong Kong government’s failure to inform the public of the latest arrangements regarding the high-speed railway is negligence of duty and a serious slip-up.

Lai hit out at the government for failing to reach agreement with the mainland authorities before making public the service pledge of “reaching Guangzhou in 48 minutes”.

“It’s not up to Hong Kong to decide, and we have no say, as we have footed the bill now while the train journey time and train schedules are under the control of someone else,” Lai said.

Meanwhile, New Territories West lawmaker Ben Chan Han-pan, who chairs Legco’s panel on railways, defended the government, saying the authorities are not misleading the public.

Chan said the two new stations are smaller and will not be used as frequently by Hong Kong travelers.

He said the Hong Kong government would enjoy a fair share of input into the decision-making process about the railway, together with its mainland counterparts.

Chan said he believed MTR Corp. (00066.HK) will be able to skip some of the stations in the mainland so as to keep the journey time within 48 minutes.

http://www.ejinsight.com/20151229-why-hk-guangzhou-express-will-take-more-than-48-minutes/

Futian rail link speeds up travel to Guangzhou

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Shenzhen landslide caused by mountain of manmade waste

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Foul play: former Chinese environment official to be prosecuted for taking bribes, ‘accepting rounds of golf with executives’

CORRUPTION CRACKDOWN

Reuters in Beijing

China’s authorities will prosecute a former environment official for corruption after an investigation found he took bribes and accepted invites from company executives to play golf, the Environment Ministry said on Friday.

Xiong Yuehui was head of a technological standards division at the ministry until he became subject of a corruption probe in August.

An investigation by graft inspectors found Xiong actively sought to hamper the investigation, forming a “conspiracy of silence” with others, breaking party discipline rules and covering up his personal affairs, the ministry’s discipline body said.

He used his position to seek benefits for others, and took gifts including cash, the ministry said in a statement released by the ruling Communist Party’s anti-graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xiong “many times went to private clubs and accepted invitations from company bosses to play golf”, it added.

It was not possible to reach Xiong for comment and unclear if he has a lawyer.

Tales of corruption and officials’ high living, including extravagant banquets and expensive rounds on golf courses, have stirred widespread public anger because bureaucrats are meant to live on modest sums and lead morally exemplary lives.

The party for the first time listed golf as a discipline violation in October as it tightened rules to stop officials engaging in corrupt practices.

Private clubs have also been a target of President Xi Jinping’s sweeping battle against deep-seated corruption due to their reputation in China as places where shady dealings or sexual liaisons are carried out by an extravagant elite.

Xiong has been formally removed from his position and his case handed over to legal authorities, the ministry said, meaning he will be prosecuted.

The Environment Ministry is at the forefront of government efforts to tackle the country’s serious pollution problem, including the smog that often covers China’s major cities.

The government announced a corruption probe into a former deputy environment minister, Zhang Lijun in July. There has been no news of him since.

China’s main anti-graft body reprimanded the ministry in February for a series of problems, including interference by ministry officials and their relatives in environmental impact assessments.

Environmental degradation is one of China’s most serious issues and a very sensitive one too, with thousands of protests every year sparked by concern about pollution, particularly from factories.

 

Source URL: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1889707/foul-play-former-chinese-environment-official-be

Carbon dioxide is not the problem

Letters to the editor, December 9, 2015

When it comes to climate change, carbon pollution and the like, you are being conned. Carbon and carbon dioxide are not pollutants; they are the daily support of life on this planet. Carbon dioxide, via photosynthesis, is the earth’s major plant food. More carbon dioxide means more trees and more food. Unelected bureaucrats at the European Union and United Nations, in their efforts to demonise and reduce carbon dioxide, promoted diesel cars across the EU zone to meet carbon emission targets. It was successful in reducing carbon dioxide by 15 per cent. The bankrupt EU then boasted to the world how “environmentally friendly” it was. However, this EU/UN effort to reduce carbon emissions made things much worse for humans and the environment. Cancerous nitrogen dioxide emissions increased over 150 per cent and particulate matter increased by over 300 per cent.

To improve air quality and health in Hong Kong and the rest of China, all efforts need to be geared at reducing criteria air pollutants, namely: carbon monoxide, lead, nitrogen dioxide, ozone, particulate matter (both PM2.5 and PM10), and sulfur dioxide. When it comes to global warming, the EU and UN are up to their old tricks again, ignoring 4.53 billion years of evidence that the climate is driven by solar activity and not by carbon emissions. They are brainwashing people into believing carbon dioxide is bad when in reality carbon dioxide is good, as it provides more food, via photosynthesis, to feed a growing population. Reducing carbon dioxide will not improve air quality; reducing criteria air pollutants will.

Further, reducing carbon emissions is irrelevant to climate. Genuine climate scientists know this and have accordingly resigned from the UN puppet organisation, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, calling it a political not scientific body. Hong Kong and the rest of China should reject international agreements and focus on the very real problems at home, namely reducing air pollution, reducing toxins in products and reducing electronic waste. Not a single dollar of tax payers’ money should be wasted in trying to reduce carbon dioxide. For those individuals that think carbon dioxide is a problem; stop driving, stop flying, stop bombing other countries, and stop sending your kids for an overseas education – hypocrisy should not be tolerated. Dr Robert Hanson, Tseung Kwan O

Source URL: http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1888316/letters-editor-december-9-2015

Beijing’s pollution saviour: Mother Nature

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Construction cranes are shrouded in smog in Beijing. Photo: Bloomberg

Residents say officials now rely on weather to control capital’s dire smog

What a difference a day makes. The arrival of strong winds overnight on Tuesday blew away much of the heavy smog that had choked Beijing for days, allowing the capital’s air quality to return to a healthy level within hours.

A cold front from the north reached the capital at about 11pm on Tuesday, and by midnight the concentration of PM2.5 particles, considered most dangerous to human health, had dropped to 22 – considered a healthy level – in the suburbs and 88 in the city. Residents woke up to a clear blue sky with cold, fresh air as the concentration of the fine particulates dropped to below 10 from more than 500 on Tuesday.

Internet users were quick to share pictures of the city’s clear skyline on social media while at the same time expressing in frustration that the capital was relying entirely on weather changes to fight the smog.

Officials, when questioned why the highest-level red pollution warning alert was not issued as the pollution index reached a hazardous level over the previous five days, explained that this was due to technological limitations.

Peng Yingdeng, a researcher at the National Engineering Research Centre for Urban Pollution Control, said air pollution had been dropping for three years, yet the weather – especially this year’s severe El Nino conditions – made the air quality worse. Beijing is prone to spells of low pressure that trap air pollutants closer to the ground.

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Some questioned why a red alert, the highest level in a four-tier system, was not issued to help residents cope better. A red alert would force schools to shut down, cars to stay off the road on alternate days and construction projects halted.

The city’s Environmental Protection Administration has been under fire for issuing and maintaining only the orange alert even though air quality was so bad that readings were off the charts.

Unfavourable weather, together with coal-burning in Beijing’s suburban area and vehicle exhaust emissions, were to blame for the heavy smog, authorities said. (CTA: note that goods vehicles can only enter Beijing and other big Mainland cities after midnight)

According to Beijing Severe Air Pollution Contingency Plan, a red alert can only be issued by the Beijing Emergency Management Office after being approved by the city mayor. It should be issued 24 hours in advance if air quality is forecast to be severe, with the air quality index over 300, for 72 hours.

But Peng said it was not possible to forecast air pollution precisely for a period longer than three days, and the Beijing environmental watchdog was upgrading its air quality projection system at a cost of 30 million yuan to extend forecasts to five days.

When air quality plummeted last Friday, the Beijing Municipal Environmental Monitoring Centre forecast it to improve on Saturday. But the AQI nosedived on Sunday and continued to drop on Monday and Tuesday, an environmental protection Administration official told The Beijing News.

“But technical limitation is no excuse,” Peng said. “The local environmental protection authority could have warned people of the severity of the smog.”

Source URL: http://www.scmp.com/news/china/policies-politics/article/1886320/beijings-pollution-saviour-mother-nature

Riot Police Fire Tear Gas at Incinerator Protesters in Guangdong

http://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/police-11302015104929.html

Authorities in the southern Chinese province of Guangdong have fired tear gas at protesters angry over plans to build a waste incinerator plant near their homes amid violent clashes that continued on Monday, local residents said.

Around 1,000 police in full riot gear were dispatched on Sunday to Jinzao township near the coastal city of Shantou in the east of Guangdong after residents of several dozen villages began a mass protest at the planned plant.

“There were protests again today,” a local resident surnamed Cai told RFA on Monday. “We went to the government offices in Jinzao [township], starting at 7.00 or 8.00 a.m.”

“Everyone is against this; there isn’t a single person here who agrees with the plan to build a waste plant, otherwise we wouldn’t be causing trouble,” she said.

“Things got pretty serious in Village No. 11, which is in the mountains … right where they were planning to build the waste incinerator plant,” Cai said.

Protesters on Monday threw rocks and stones at riot police, smashing police vehicles, a second local resident told RFA.

“There were a lot of people here in the morning, throwing stones and suchlike,” the resident, who gave only a surname, Liu, said.

“Yesterday there were a lot of police vehicles here, and they drove into the mountains, police and riot police,” she said. “They had buses and everything.”

Dozens injured

Photos of the protest posted to social media showed a dark-green police truck with a cannon-like object on its roof, as well as spent canisters picked up by local residents with the markings “CS-1 gas.”

Local residents tweeted that the police had fired tear gas canisters in an “offensive” on the villages near the planned site.

Dozens of people were injured and an unknown number detained, according to tweets from the scene.

“All the businesses in our village have closed, and nobody is working in the fields or on the mountains,” one tweet said. “It’s the mulberry harvest, but there are no trucks here to buy it.”

“Some people can’t get out of their homes, and there are drones in the sky above shooting footage of people’s movements,” the tweet said.

“The students have been boycotting class for a week already now.”

‘Nobody agreed’

Local officials moved ahead with the planned project without the consent of local people, in a dispute that has dragged on for nearly two years, villagers said.

“They said it was all signed and agreed [with us] but nobody agreed to anything at all,” a third resident told RFA. “They are making it up … nobody agreed to their building this.”

An official who answered the phone at the Jinzao township government offices on Monday said all was now quiet in the area.

“The situation has calmed down now; it’s all quiet,” the official said. “The police dealt with the situation, so you should talk to them.”

Some 20,000 local residents, who staged a mass demonstration last January, remain totally opposed to the project, which they fear will damage their health and pollute local soil and water supplies.

A growing movement

More than three decades of breakneck economic growth have left Guangdong with a seriously degraded environment, causing a fast-maturing environmental movement to emerge among the region’s middle classes and farming communities alike.

Previous attempts to build similar plants elsewhere in the province have drawn widespread criticism over local government access to the huge potential profits linked to waste disposal projects.

Last year, authorities in Guangdong’s Puzhai township said they would cancel plans to build a waste-incineration plant there following angry protests and violent clashes between demonstrators and police.

Reported by Ka Pa and Wei Ling for RFA’s Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

China claims to have met pollution reduction targets

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/china-claims-to-have-met-pollution-reduction-targets/articleshow/49969745.cms

A scene from Beijing shrouded in heavy smog.

A scene from Beijing shrouded in heavy smog.

BEIJING: China, the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, has achieved the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants six months ahead of schedule, Chinese government has claimed as President Xi Jinping today left for Paris to attend the UN conference on climate change.

Xi will attend the inaugural session of the Paris meet stated to be the most crucial in clinching a global climate deal amid strong differences between the developed and developing countries.

China is the top polluter after the US in greenhouse gases.

China and the US reached an agreement last year to take ambitious action to limit greenhouse gases.

As Xi left for Paris, Environment Minister Chen Jinping said that China has attained the pollution reduction targets for major pollutants outlined in its 12th Five-Year Plan, six months ahead of schedule.

He, however, said a substantial improvement of the environment will only be possible if pollution is reduced by a further 30 to 50 per cent, he said.

His claims came as Beijing and many parts of China continued to be engulfed with hazardous smog far exceeding safe levels prompting Chinese environment authority to send special teams in Beijing and to neighbouring cities to covertly search for illegal emissions.

Recent reports also said China is under reporting coal usage to claim drastic cutdown of its usage.

In the 12th Five-Year Plan (2010-2015), China vowed to cut sulfur dioxide emissions by 8 per cent and ammonia nitrogen and nitrogen oxide emissions by 10 per cent compared with 2010 levels.

Chen said that the surface area affected by acid rain in China had shrunk to 1990s levels, while water quality had also improved significantly.

China has phased out some 250,000 tonnes of ozone- depleting substances during the same period, he said.

This is more than half of the total amount phased out by all developing countries.

 

 

“Not only are we working to fix our domestic environmental problems, we have made considerable contributions to addressing international challenges, too,” state-run Xinhua quoted Chen as saying.

The minister warned, however, some 20 million tonnes of major pollutants are still discharged annually in China, and that figure must be reduced by another 30 to 50 per cent.

One year after the world’s second-largest economy “declared war” on pollution, following decades of pursuing growth at the expense of the environment, Chinese citizens are still concerned by air quality, particularly in the big, industrial cities in the central and eastern regions.

Beijing residents told to stay inside as smog levels soar

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/28/beijing-residents-told-to-stay-inside-as-smog-levels-soar

Air pollution in the Chinese capital has reached more than 15 times the safe level as smog engulfs large parts of the country

Chinese women wear masks as haze from smog caused by air pollution hangs over the Forbidden City in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Chinese women wear masks as haze from smog caused by air pollution hangs over the Forbidden City in Beijing. Photograph: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

Beijing’s residents have been advised to stay indoors after air pollution in the Chinese capital reached hazardous levels.

The warning comes as the governments of more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change.

China, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, is suffering from serious air pollution, largely attributed to smog from coal-fired power plants.

The onset of winter and the need for more heating of homes means the problem has intensified in the capital, which has an estimated population of 20 million.

At noon on Saturday, the US embassy in Beijing reported the level of the poisonous, tiny articles of PM2.5 at 391 micrograms per cubic metre.

The World Health Organisation considers the safe level to be 25 micrograms per cubic metre of the particulates.

Since Friday, the city had been shroud in grey smog, reducing visibilities to a few hundred metres.

The ministry of environmental protection has forecast severe pollution for the greater Beijing region, as well as the west part of Shandong and the northern part of Henan until Tuesday, when strong winds from the north are expected to blow away air pollutants.

The ministry has advised the public to stay indoors.

Residents of Beijing posted photographs of the pollution on Twitter.

Authorities blame coal burning for winter heating as a major culprit for the air pollution. The ministry said it had sent teams to check on illegal emissions by factories in several northern Chinese cities.

In the past, authorities have shut down factories and pulled half of the vehicles off the roads to curb pollution. But such drastic measures are disruptive and only used when Beijing feels it needs to present a better image to the world, such as hosting major global leaders and events.

Earlier this month, air pollution reached almost 50 times above the recommended levels in Shenyang, in the country’s north-east.

On 9 November, levels of PM2.5 reached 1,157 micrograms per cubic metre in the city, reducing visibility to as little as 100 metres.

Officials said the dangerous smog was caused by a surge in coal-fired electricity use, as the region’s central heating systems kick into gear for winter.