Clear The Air News Blog Rotating Header Image

April, 2008:

Farming Out The Pollution Problem

Apr 16th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Oasis’s promise of a Hong Kong-based budget airline turned out to be a mirage after all.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008 – The Standard

Oasis’s promise of a Hong Kong-based budget airline turned out to be a mirage after all. But capitalism proceeds from its failures as well as from its successes, and in spite of the considerable (and perhaps unavoidable) inconvenience and loss to people holding now worthless tickets, entrepreneurial derring-do and the risk that accompanies it is one of the foundations of Hong Kong’s prosperity.

Oasis’s demise may, in the end, be no bad thing, for while cheap flights have permitted many more people to take many more holidays, the consequent increase in air travel results in worsening carbon emissions and a variety of problems related to airport development: noise, pollution and congestion.

The unfortunate truth is that budget airlines like Oasis encourage people to fly, which would be fine if airplanes didn’t belch out carbon and pollutants in rather large amounts. But they do.

I don’t wish to wax overly moral about this, for I will take advantage of low-cost flights myself when available, but any solution to reduce carbon emissions from air travel will result in higher prices, so maybe we shouldn’t mourn too much for the passing of the HK$1,000 Hong Kong-London ticket.

Indeed, high oil prices have much the same effect as a carbon tax and may be the best (and perhaps only practical) way to reduce carbon emissions from air travel.

Admittedly, the revenues from this “tax” go to oil companies and some not-always-entirely-in-favor regimes around the world, rather than the supposedly more benign national tax authorities of the consuming countries, but they are no less effective for that.

Further, the woes of Heathrow’s Terminal 5 have once more raised arguments against concentrating all aviation growth in a single location: regardless of projected demand, there are considerable reservations about the wisdom of continued expansion there.

London has several airports in addition to Heathrow, including Gatwick, London City Airport, Stansted and Luton. Budget airlines tend to fly from the latter two: their business models are based on the lower costs at these secondary airports. New York also makes use of at least three airports, and Washington two.

Hong Kong’s equivalents would be Macau and Shenzhen. If there are to be budget carriers, perhaps it’s just as well that they fly out of our secondary airports – something which has already begun to happen – reducing the pressure to expand Chek Lap Kok.

Airports are capital-intensive and the return on investment often problematical. Anyway, what Hong Kong wants are the passengers: plane take-offs and landings are just a means to an end.

If Macau and Shenzhen get the congestion, noise and pollution, and we get the passengers, then so much the better. It is true that both Macau and Shenzhen are more inconvenient than Chek Lap Kok, but perhaps not much more so than Stansted, or the Girona and Reus airports used by budget airlines flying to Barcelona. If you are someone for whom money is more valuable than time, you’ll put up with an extra 30-60 minutes on the bus or ferry.

There is not, of course, immigration control between London and Stansted, but Geneva airport, for example, manages to accommodate passengers to and from both France and Switzerland, by having each country maintain its own immigration and customs, while British immigration for travelers on the Eurostar from Paris is at departure in the Gare du Nord.

The larger issue is that we can’t look at our relations with our regional neighbors exclusively as a zero-sum game where every visitor to, or via, Macau, for example, is one lost to Hong Kong. Neither Macau nor Shenzhen is a competitor for those visitors who want what Hong Kong has to offer.

Budget flights to these two places are likely to increase rather than decrease visitors here, or at least would if transit to Hong Kong could be streamlined.

Whether or not this will actually happen remains to be seen, but Oasis’s demise is a reminder that not all business activities which might benefit Hong Kong should necessarily be based here and that moving certain activities outside the confines of Hong Kong might allow us to concentrate on the higher value-added ends of the business.

China Surpasses US As Top Carbon Polluter: US Study

Apr 16th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Agence France-Presse in Los Angeles – Updated on Apr 16, 2008

China has already surpassed the United States as the world’s largest carbon polluter, the authors of a California study said Tuesday.

“Our best forecast has China’s CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions correctly surpassing the United States in 2006 rather than 2020 as previously anticipated,” said the study by researchers at the University of California.

The report, written by economic professors Maximilian Aufhammer of UC Berkeley and Richard Carson of UC San Diego, is to be published next month in the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management.

Researchers compiled information about the use of fossil fuels in various Chinese provinces and forecast an 11 per cent annual growth of carbon emissions from 2004 to 2010.

Previous estimates had set the growth rate at 2.5 to five per cent.

The spike in air pollution by China has largely cancelled out efforts by other countries’ attempts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol, the authors said.

The researchers predicted that by 2010, “there will be an increase of 600 million metric tons of carbon emissions in China over the country’s levels in 2000.”

That growth would “dramatically overshadow the 116 million metric tons of carbon emissions reductions pledged by all the developed countries in the Kyoto Protocol,” the report said.

“Put another way, the projected annual increase in China alone over the next several years is greater than the current emissions produced by either Great Britain or Germany.

The researchers studied pollution data from China’s 30 provincial entities in order to obtain a more precise snapshot of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Everybody had been treating China as single country, but each of the country’s provinces is larger than many European countries, both in geographic size and population,” said Carson.

“In addition, there is a wide range in economic development and wealth from one province to the next, as well as major differences in population growth, all of which has an effect on energy consumption that cannot be easily addressed in models based upon aggregate national data.”

Mr Aufhammer said the results showed the “emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations, and that means the goal of stabilising atmospheric CO2 is going to be much, much harder to achieve.”

Mainland To Face Pressure At Meeting Of Big Polluters

Apr 16th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Stephen Chen – Updated on Apr 16, 2008

Leading greenhouse gas emitters will meet in Paris tomorrow to work out ways to tackle global warming, with the mainland expected to face unprecedented pressure to take the initiative.

The two-day meeting will be chaired by the US and preceded by a workshop today on greenhouse gas targets for industrial sectors.

The meeting is part of a drive for an agreement by the end of this year by countries that emit 80 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gases.

The Paris gathering is the third since US President George W. Bush initiated talks last year with major emitters, including the mainland, India and the European Union.

For China, battered by the Tibetan riots and a protest-riddled Olympic torch relay, the meeting would be like The Banquet, environmental observer Li Feng suggested, referring to a mainland movie involving a political setup.

Last month, economists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Diego released a study on China’s carbon emissions with figures that put all previous estimates – including those by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – in the shade.

The researchers’ most conservative forecast said that by 2010, the annual carbon emissions in China would be 600 million tonnes higher than they were in 2000.

Given that developed countries have pledged only 116 million tonnes of carbon emissions cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, the growth from China would dramatically overshadow the world’s effort to tame global warming, the scientists said.

“Making China and other developing countries an integral part of any future climate agreement is now even more important,” Maximillian Auffhammer, UC Berkeley assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics, said in an earlier press release.

“It had been expected that the efficiency of China’s power generation would continue to improve as per capita income increased, slowing down the rate of carbon dioxide emissions growth.

“What we’re finding instead is that the emissions growth rate is surpassing our worst expectations.”

On Monday, the new Ministry of Environmental Protection – the elevated State Environmental Protection Administration – released the first batch of orders to control the emission of greenhouse gases, making China the first country in the world to issue compulsory standards on greenhouse emissions.

China ‘Now Top Carbon Polluter’

Apr 14th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Story from BBC NEWS
Published: 2008/04/14 23:11:35 GMT
By Roger Harrabin
BBC Environment analyst

China has already overtaken the US as the world’s “biggest polluter”, a report to be published next month says.

The research suggests the country’s greenhouse gas emissions have been underestimated, and probably passed those of the US in 2006-2007.

The University of California team will report their work in the Journal of Environment Economics and Management.

They warn that unchecked future growth will dwarf any emissions cuts made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol.

The team admit there is some uncertainty over the date when China may have become the biggest emitter of CO2, as their analysis is based on 2004 data.

Until now it has been generally believed that the US remains “Polluter Number One”.

Provincial data

Next month’s University of California report warns that unless China radically changes its energy policies, its increases in greenhouse gases will be several times larger than the cuts in emissions being made by rich nations under the Kyoto Protocol

The researchers say their figures are based on provincial-level data from the Chinese Environmental Protection Agency.

They say analysis of the 30 data points is more informative about likely future emissions than national figures in wider use because it allows errors to be tracked more closely.

They believe current computer models substantially underestimate future emissions growth in China.

We are awaiting a formal comment from the UK Chinese Embassy, but Dr Max Auffhammer, the lead researcher, said his projections had been presented widely and no-one had raised a serious complaint.

All those concerned about climate change agree that China’s emissions are a problem – including China itself.

But China and many other developing countries struggling to tackle poverty are adamant that any negotiated emissions reductions should not be absolute, but relative to a “business-as-usual” scenario of projected growth.

That is why this study is of more than academic interest.

‘Truly shocking’

If it becomes widely accepted that China’s future emissions are likely to be much higher than previously estimated, that will have to factored into any future global climate agreement if the Chinese are to be persuaded to take part.

In brief, although this study looks bad for China’s reputation, it may be good for China’s negotiating position.

The Chinese – and the UN – insist that rich countries with high per capita levels of pollution must cut emissions first, and help poorer countries to invest in clean technology.

America’s per capita emissions are five to six times higher than China’s, even though China has become the top manufacturing economy.

US emissions are still growing too, though much more slowly.

Dr Auffhammer told BBC News that his projections had made an assumption that the Chinese government’s recent aggressive energy efficiency programme would fail, as the previous one had failed badly.

“Our figures for emissions growth are truly shocking,” he said.

“But there is no sense pointing a finger at the Chinese. They are trying to pull people out of poverty and they clearly need help.

“The only solution is for a massive transfer of technology and wealth from the West.”

He acknowledged that this eventuality was unlikely.

Those scientists aspiring to stabilise global emissions growth before 2020 to prevent what they believe may be irreversible damage to the climate may be wondering how this can possibly be achieved.

In A Muddle Over Policy

Apr 14th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Updated on Apr 14, 2008 – SCMP

There are times when I feel that the government is not being clear-headed about some of its policies.

That the topic of road pricing has been under discussion since 1980 reflects sluggishness on the part of officials, and an inability and sluggishness in solving this problem – and other similar problems like air pollution, health care and education.

The government makes swift decisions on large infrastructure and financial projects and officials are swift to take credit for their success. Handling social problems is not so glamorous – and is often tough.

So, in the end, we can only concur that a cheaper road price levy would be a means to generate more revenue rather than to reduce road congestion in Central District. What has the government to say about this warped logic?

Thomas Yeo, Tuen Mun

Green Brothers To Tackle China’s Environmental Crisis

Apr 14th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

In pod we trust

An unlikely trio adopts a fun approach to spread the green message on the mainland

Dinah Gardner – SCMP – Updated on Apr 14, 2008

Take a geeky-looking US student, an idealistic young mainlander, and an actor from Toronto, mix in video, some naff rap lines – “Wind energy, hey/ Reduce emissions, hey/ It’s green energy/ Hey! Hey! Hey!” – and the result is the China’s Green Beat website.

Calling themselves the Green Brothers, the unlikely trio of John Romankiewicz, Zhao Xiangyu and Rene Ng have been highlighting efforts to tackle China’s environmental crisis through quirky videos that they post on their site, and now hope to persuade young people that it’s hip to be green.

A visiting Fulbright scholar, 24-year-old Romankiewicz says they got the idea for the podcasts while he was tutoring Zhao in English. “Each time we met, we ended up spending all our time discussing China and the environment,” he says.

Green Beat started last September as a blog funded with remaining money from Romankiewicz’s scholarship, but has since grown into a website (chinasgreenbeat.com) with five podcasts posted so far. Made in Putonghua with English subtitles, the earlier videos by Romankiewicz and Zhao, 20, featured topics such as Beijing’s recycling system, solar water heaters and biomass power plants.

The more recent addition of Canadian actor-director Ng, 32, who runs the Beijing International Theatre and Entertainment stage group, has injected more polish and humour into the productions. Take the episode titled Sun Zhe’s Transportation Adventures, in which the Green Brothers (kitted out in urban streetwear and comically dazzling bling) rap about the merits of public transport. The hero finds he becomes attractive to girls as soon as he starts taking the subway.

Such humorous efforts have won the brothers a growing number of fans, increasing respect and, more recently, international sponsorship. Last week, with help from China Dialogue, an international NGO with an environmental focus, they conducted a two-day workshop to teach university students how to make Green Beat-style videos.

The 30 participants came from all over the country – each representing a green group from their university – with 10 from Beijing and the remainder ranging from Xinjiang in the northwest to the manufacturing city of Wenzhou on the east coast.

Lacking the flash adopted by some larger NGOs, the workshop took a down-to-earth stance: the venue was a two-star hotel in the university district of Haidian and speakers were volunteers and students who took the bus to a recycling depot to practise shooting video.

Warming to Romankiewicz’s Putonghua efforts, Ng’s humour and Zhao’s enthusiasm – “This is just my passion,” he says – the participants exchanged real-life experiences and many came away fired up with ideas for producing their own podcasts.

They have a month to finish the assignment and the best short will win a 1,000 yuan (HK$1,115) prize.

Gao Wei-wei, a first-year law student at the University of Hong Kong, was touched by mainland participants’ tales of how their home villages had been poisoned by pollution. “My blood is boiling … to listen to these people’s stories from all over China,” she says. “Their stories took my breath away.”

The 19-year-old is already planning a video on excessive consumption in Hong Kong. “Hong Kong people are so materialistic. They waste so much,” says Gao, who views unsustainable consumption as the biggest threat to the environment in the region.

China Dialogue estimates there are now about 2,500 student environmental groups in the country. The number has grown steadily over the past decade, ranging from tiny groups such as Green Eyes, which was founded by a 17-year-old schoolboy eight years ago, to the sprawling China Youth Climate Action Network, which links climate change activist groups across the country.

Although the authorities tend to be wary of student movements, the green groups survive because they’re apolitical – there’s nothing subversive about picking up litter or encouraging people not to use plastic bags. “Green student groups don’t do anything controversial … it’s a pretty safe arena,” says Romankiewicz, who also researches renewable energy issues as an intern for information provider New Energy Finance.

And Green Beat is careful to keep it that way: at the workshop, students are told to avoid political comment when making the podcasts. “There’s no need at this point to make this political,” he says.

A graduate in materials science and engineering from Northwestern University, Romankiewicz says he was spurred into starting Green Beat by the pessimistic tone that foreign media took in covering environmental problems on the mainland.

Western reporters give the impression that the situation is hopeless, but there are good things going on, he says. “And the best way to inspire and encourage people to lead greener lives and make greener investments is through smart, fun and optimistic media.”

Romankiewicz rejects suggestions that Green Beat’s podcasts might lack bite. “You should be somewhat balanced and in the next few videos we’ll just be straight up,” he says. “But you can’t just make a video about pollution, saying it killed 20 people and then leave the viewer with no answers about how to solve this … there must be something people can do.”

The podcasts help show a more rounded picture of mainland efforts to heal environmental scars, says Zhao, who grew up in the coal-mining town of Qitaihe in Liaoning province. “We’re sick of western media only showing part of the truth with the environment story,” he says. “If you are a country with 1.3 billion people, how can you deal with this situation?”

Workshop participants such as Hou Xiaoting reckon Green Beat’s wacky methods work. “They’re doing really cool stuff, it’s a new way to promote the environment and it can attract a lot of people’s attention because it’s funny,” says the 23-year-old from Fudan University in Shanghai.

But given the gravity of China’s environmental woes, what can a group of students on a shoestring budget hope to achieve? The mainland is now the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and contains 16 of the world’s most polluted cities. Expanding deserts now cover about one quarter of land surface and, despite the central government’s enthusiastic initiatives, local officials obsessed with growth and wealth rarely take heed.

Zhao reckons the answer lies with young people. “Maybe these students can’t change the situation now, but in the future they will get jobs, they’re the future.”

The students agree. “A lot of Chinese people, including many young people, feel frustrated, but I have hope in this country,” says Zhao Yue, a 22-year-old from Liaoning now studying earth sciences at the University of Hong Kong. “I believe change is around the corner.”

Sunday’s Mass Cycle Ride

Apr 9th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Updated on Apr 09, 2008 – SCMP

Sunday’s mass cycle ride in support of a bike path along the waterfront was attended not only by experienced cyclists, who may be used to busy urban traffic, but also students and children who clearly would not have been comfortable on the roads without the safety of a group around them (“Campaigners get on their bikes for cycle-path protest”, April 7).

With a cycle route along the waterfront, leisure cyclists, commuters and tourists could all enjoy peace and convenience while getting around. And all of us would benefit from fewer vehicle emissions, reduced congestion and less noise pollution.

The government refuses to accept or support cycling as anything other than a minor leisure activity, when with a little imagination and co-ordination, poorly used land alongside the harbour could be turned into a cycle path cum footpath, making Hong Kong a truly world-class city, with cycling as a viable and pleasant transport option in the heart of our metropolis.

Sweden: City of Stockholm Approves Food Waste Disposal Installation

Apr 9th, 2008
by Editor.
No comments yet

In September 2008, after completing a comprehensive study on the impacts and benefits of food waste disposals, the Stockholm Water Board voted to allow the installation of disposals in all areas of their jurisdiction without prior approval, and also eliminated previously required surcharges. This action was endorsed in April 2008 by the Swedish Green Party, which argued that the aggressive use of food waste disposers is consistent with the national strategy to divert 35% of household food waste from incineration to biological recycling by 2010. Stockholm currently sells biogas to produce energy, and has excess digester capacity at its wastewater treatment plants to increase the amount of biogas the plants capture. A link to the English version of the document is attached.

Download (PDF, 23KB)

Pricey ERP Is Best Choice

Apr 8th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Updated on Apr 08, 2008 – SCMP

We have to strongly reconsider the government’s view on air pollution.

Whereas the Wan Chai to Central Bypass seeks to facilitate the current traffic flow through the centre of our city or may even allow the flow to increase, the purpose of electronic road pricing is to reduce the total number of vehicles that will go through Central at a given time.

By linking these two issues (“Bypass could halve levy for drive to Central”, March 30), it is readily apparent that our government’s planning advisers do not care about the problem of air pollution within our city centre and the effect that has on residents and would rather go ahead with an ill-advised public works project that will fail.

Why else would they push for a HK$50 levy through the ERP versus HK$90? Surely a HK$90 levy would make more environmental sense – making more people take public transport versus private vehicles. That the government even suggests a lower levy would be beneficial is ludicrous in the face of the facts.

Mark Chan, Tsing Yi

Filthy Air Is Bad For Our Health

Apr 8th, 2008
by AdminCTA.
No comments yet

Updated on Apr 08, 2008

Congratulations to the government of the Hong Kong SAR. In its drive to ensure Hong Kong is “Asia’s world city”, it has another milestone to celebrate, world-class smog.

As measured by the amount of time the air pollution index (API) is high or above, Hong Kong set a new record during the first quarter of this year.

Refusing to listen to critics who said it couldn’t be done, the API was in the range judged by the World Health Organisation to be dangerous 70 per cent of the time.

That is higher than for the first quarter of any year since records began in 1999 and puts us well on track to record the smoggiest year ever.

Unfortunately, summer is just around the corner and those pesky southern winds will blow the smell that puts “fragrant” into “Fragrant Harbour” away from us for a month or two. But don’t worry, the smog will be back to limit your children’s lung growth just in time for the new school year in September.

William Hayward, Wan Chai

← Earlier Posts Newer Posts →