Download PDF : e51ch11sum
July, 2012:
Food waste high on recycling menu
Jasmine Siu HK Standard
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
With Hong Kong’s three landfills reaching saturation by 2018, Economic Synergy is calling for a sharp rise in the recycling rate with food waste and plastic bottles high on the list.
“With 3,000 tonnes of food waste being dumped into landfills each day, there is a great potential in handling the waste to save money and space,” said Yau Wing-kwong, conservation expert at the group, a local think-tank on economic and social policies.
According to a study cited by Friends of the Earth, the public squanders HK$130 billion on wasted food as 40percent of what is ordered when dining out is left uneaten – producing 20 to 30percent more food waste than counterparts in South Korea and Taiwan.
Yau said households may cooperate with their estate management to apply for the government’s Environment and Conservation Fund, which has reserved HK$50 million for placing bunk bed-sized food waste processors in housing estates.
In March last year, high-end art shopping mall K11 cooperated with GreenersAction for a year-round food waste recycling program.
Within three months, the nine participating restaurants and supermarkets reduced food waste by at least 15percent. The program was later extended to 32 participants. Food waste may be turned into fish food, cleansing products and fertilizer.
Last week, Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said the government plans to set up district-oriented food-waste recycling facilities throughout the city.
However, Economic Synergy wants to see more public participation, especially regarding plastic bottles that can be recycled for various uses.
“A 70 percent [recycling] rate is achievable within two or three years if we are willing to put our hearts into it,” Yau said.
Officials crack down on outspoken Shanghai daily
Two executives punished, apparently for ‘radical’ reports, a day after Guangzhou paper is censoredLouise Ho Jul 18, 2012 Two senior executives of a major Shanghai newspaper were removed or suspended yesterday, sources said, a day after a newspaper in Guangdong saw its editor-in-chief removed and a considerable amount of coverage cut.Lu Yan, publisher of the Oriental Morning Post, was transferred to head another division of the Shanghai-based Wenxin United Press Group that owns the paper, and deputy editor-in-chief Sun Jian was suspended, according to two sources at the newspaper who declined to be named.On Monday, Guangdong’s New Express announced that its chief editor, Lu Fumin, had been removed from his post to head the political section of a sister newspaper, while its national and international coverage was slashed and its op-ed page eliminated.A separate veteran Shanghai-based journalist said that municipal party secretary Yu Zhengsheng was unhappy with the newspaper’s stories. “Yu has criticised some of the newspaper’s reports in recent months, so the paper had to do something about it,” he said.Sources with the paper said top Shanghai party officials had ordered the city’s publicity department to tighten control over the paper. They said Lu’s departure was the result of a series of perceived radical reports, including one about reform-minded liberal economist Mao Yushi .They also said that Sun was suspended because he posted a picture of the cover of a book, Conversations with Chen Xitong, on his microblog. The book, published earlier this year outside the mainland, features interviews with the purged former Beijing mayor Chen Xitong, including his role in the crackdown on the 1989 pro-democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.The veteran journalist in Shanghai said the paper’s management announced the news to its employees yesterday. Online discussions in media circles said management had asked staff not to talk to outsiders about the reshuffle.The veteran journalist said: “The news [of the moves] will make media in Shanghai more conservative and cautious in future reporting.”Professor Zhan Jiang, who teaches journalism at Beijing Foreign Studies University, said: “Any topics or reports that might draw excessive attention or cause trouble are not tolerated by the authorities. Stability is everything.”Shanghai party boss Yu has been widely regarded as a front runner to enter the party’s top echelons at its national congress in the autumn.However, the veteran Shanghai journalist said the reshuffles at the Shanghai and Guangdong papers may not be related to the party congress.The Oriental Morning Post is the most outspoken newspaper in Shanghai. On May 13, 2008, the day after the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan, it printed “8,533 dead” in bold on a black cover.Additional reporting by Staff Reporterlouise.ho@scmp.com
Green group complains about Yau’s Europe trip
LAI SEE Howard Winn Jul 18, 2012 |
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Edward Yau Tang-wah, the former secretary for the environment who now heads the chief executive’s office, acquired some notoriety for doing little to improve the environment, but in the 60 months he was in the job managed to squeeze in some 59 overseas trips. One trip has attracted critical attention from Clear the Air chairman Jim Middleton, who has filed a complaint with the Director of Audit. In April, Yau led a motley group of 20 on a trip to Sweden, Denmark, then on to Britain to visit London, Cambridge and Scotland. The trip, according to the government, aimed “to exchange experience on the development and promotion of green technologies, identify opportunities for co-operation on various green initiatives, and promote the market for green technological and innovative solutions in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta region.” Eight of the participants were from environmental firms, there were six academics, three from the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, and two from the Hong Kong Productivity Council. Of the academics, one was a professor of internal medicine, and another of chemistry. The Productivity Council sent two IT specialists. Most on the trip were from government-funded groups which forked out a minimum of HK$44,000 per head for the trip. Middleton is not convinced of the efficacy of the trip or of the participants. He was particularly critical of the visit to Denmark, noting it was behind Hong Kong in terms of recycling, and recently realised it was exceeding its carbon dioxide goals under the Kyoto Protocol. The main reason for this was its widespread incineration of municipal waste. “What has Hong Kong gained from this trip?” he asks |
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From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: 07 July, 2012 20:47
To: ‘panel_ea@legco.gov.hk‘; kswong@enb.gov.hk; ‘ceo@ceo.gov.hk‘; ‘“TAM Yiu-chung”’; ‘garychk’; ‘enquiry@aud.gov.hk‘
Subject: ‘ Greentech ‘ Europe jaunt members
Subject: Greentech Europe jaunt members
So look at the number of participants from the Taipo Science Park who went for the jolly to Europe in April.
And then of course the freebies from HK Productivity Council (specialty IT) and a professor of medicine from CUHK , lifetime students from Kadoorie Institute etc
What did this trip achieve for the HK Environment ? how do we benefit ? Please ask the question in Legco.
Why are a professor of internal medicine, HKG Productivity Council (lack of productivity IT people) and an HKBU chemistry professor travelling on a so-called environmental ‘Greentech’ trip looking at incinerators and a Scottish whiskey distillery? They looked at hybrid buses in UK – so who actually buys the buses here ? KMB and Citybus and New World First Bus should be compelled to get them by mandating Clean Air Zones in our worst roadside pollution areas, but Edward Yau already signed weakened new franchises with them.
How many foreign companies have signed up for space at the Taipo Science Park as a result of this trip ?
Directly (Yau Tang Wah) or indirectly the money funding these people’s Europe jaunt came from taxpayers.
Diabolical waste of our Government funds with no apparent return.
James Middleton
Chairman
From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: 16 July, 2012 14:17
To: ‘dsun@aud.gov.hk‘
Subject: : Burning sensation – did Edward Yau bring back this message with him from his ‘Greentech’ trip and Scottish distillery visit ? what a waste of public money
Mr. SUN Tak Kei, David, BBS, JP | Dir of Audit | 2829 4200 | dsun@aud.gov.hk |
From: James Middleton [mailto:dynamco@netvigator.com]
Sent: 12 July, 2012 23:06
To: ‘Kitto Kan’; Howard Winn; kswong@enb.gov.hk; ‘sen@enb.gov.hk‘; ‘panel_ea@legco.gov.hk‘
Cc: ‘ceo@ceo.gov.hk‘
Subject: : Burning sensation – did Edward Yau bring back this message with him from his ‘Greentech’ trip and Scottish distillery visit ? what a waste of public money
Clear the Air says:
So our former Environment Minister Edward Yau and his ‘Greentech’ hangers-on for a free Europe jaunt at public expense visited Denmark to learn about their ‘advanced’ waste treatment bonfire.
In fact Denmark is way behind Hong Kong in recycling, percentage wise, they have just realised their incinerators are causing irreparable CO2 climate damage (let alone the other noxious emissions), they do not have enough waste to burn so have to import itto keep their incinerators running – and our ‘Greentech’ mission went there to learn something, or for det kolde bord (smorgasbord)?
Read on and be amazed …………………
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201204/25/P201204250528.htm
SEN and green tech mission start visit to Denmark (with photos)
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The Secretary for the Environment, Mr Edward Yau, and a green tech mission from Hong Kong started their visit to Denmark in Copenhagen today (April 25, Copenhagen time). While in Copenhagen they will take a look at the city’s advanced waste treatment technology and explore possibilities for co-operation in green business. The mission first visited Amagerforbrænding, which runs Copenhagen’s largest incineration plant. They toured its recycling station and the incineration plant to learn more about the city’s waste treatment facilities and technology for generating energy from waste.
THE COPENHAGEN POST
Still adjusting | The great green swindle
Justin Cremer http://cphpost.dk/commentary/cph-post-voices/still-adjusting-great-green-swindle
April 7, 2012 – 07:37
A proud native of the American state of Iowa, Justin Cremer has been living in Copenhagen since June 2010. In addition to working at the CPH Post, he balances fatherhood, struggling with the Danish language and keeping up with the ever-changing immigration rules.
Just days after Denmark put through its much-heralded energy plan, resulting in plenty of back-slapping among politicians and more than a fair amount of praise in the international press, Eurostat figures revealed that the average Dane produced 673 kilos of garbage in 2010, putting Denmark behind only Cyprus and Luxembourg when it comes to trash.The figures also revealed that a mere 23 percent of Danish household trash is recycled, about half as much as the Germans.
These numbers were not in the least bit surprising. Ever since my first visit to Denmark, I was struck by how hard it was to recycle, particularly plastic. I was so accustomed to recycling my plastic one gallon milk containers (that’s roughly 3.8litres, my European friends) that I found it incredulous that milk here came in cardboard packages destined for the trash. Though, to be fair, I found it even more unbelievable that the said containers only hold one litre of milk, meaning a lifetime of going to the store every second day.
Like most of the outside world, I came here having bought into the notion that Denmark was a green paradise. Why then, was I throwing things in the trash that back home were recycled? “Bare rolig du,” I was told. In Denmark, everything is burnt and the energy is then used to heat homes. It’s a beautiful system, can’t you see that?
Actually, no. A study by the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) last year revealed that Denmark’s carbon dioxide emissions were double what was originally thought and the nation was exceeding the carbon dioxide goals under the Kyoto Protocol. The culprit? That same rubbish incineration programme that had been praised to the heavens.
But, but, but, it’s not the incineration that’s the problem, experts argued. It’s that too much plastic gets burnt – that same plastic that is incredibly inconvenient to recycle.
Being a good, environmentally-conscious world citizen, I tried to do my small part. For months, I had been dutifully separating my plastic and cardboard, placing them in the requisite clear plastic sacks, and storing them in the shed until the infrequent storskrald (big trash) pick-up days.
Only when my wife happened to be outside on pick-up day and struck up a conversation with one of the collectors, did I come to realise that all of that was just burnt anyway. Yes, my plastic that had been rinsed and separated, my cardboard that had been neatly bundled. Burnt. All of it. In incineration plants that, according to DTU’s numbers, produce some 700,000 more tonnes of carbon dioxide than previously thought.
Rather ironically, with the amount of emissions this incorrectly-labelled ‘green’ solution pumps into the atmosphere, there sure are some particular rules about it. Just last week, the collectors refused to take my trash because there was loose kitty litter inside. Gosh, did I feel terrible that I hadn’t put it in an extra unnecessary plastic sack to put within the larger sack so that it all could be burnt and added to the air pollution. My bad, y’all.
Hopefully, though, the attitudes towards incineration and recycling are beginning to change. A year-long pilot programme inAmager revealed last summer that up to 30 percent of the household rubbish currently being burned is recyclable or unfit for burning. Based on that programme, Copenhagen’s technical and environmental department, Teknik- ogMiljøforvaltningen (TMF), announced a new sortable recycling programme that it expects will reduce carbon emissions by 1,400 tonnes per year. The programme was due to begin this month, but a call to TMF last week revealed that it had been pushed back to sometime in the autumn.
Denmark has done an amazing job of presenting itself as an environmental leader. The strategy seems to be that if you dotyour countryside and shorelines with enough wind turbines, you’ll convince the world that you’re ‘green’. Largely, it’s worked. And with the newly-announced plan to wean Denmark off fossil fuels by 2050, the country will continue to be perceived as on the cutting edge of green technology. But when residents can’t conveniently recycle in their homes and instead pile up obscene amounts of trash that, once incinerated, produce an emissions-laden carbon bomb, it gives a whole new meaning to the line so proudly displayed on DSB’s trains: “It’s not a question of green, but how green.” And just how green can a country be when in the year 2012 it still hasn’t fully embraced recycling?
THE COPENHAGEN POST
Incinerators: better than landfills, but a recycling loser
Erica Cooperberg http://cphpost.dk/news/local/incinerators-better-landfills-recycling-loser
July 8, 2012 – 08:00
Burning rubbish provides energy for households, but also comes with a price: it makes people complacent about their trash disposal
Plans to build a new futuristic incinerator – complete with ski slope – were just too grand for the city
For the five and a half million individuals residing in Denmark, waste is a perpetual problem, but it is not one that is being ignored. However, depending on who you ask, the nation’s chosen disposal method – incineration – is either an ‘environmentally-friendly’ end station, or just a step in the right direction.
While 42 percent of Danish waste is recycled, according to official statistics, the majority, 54 percent, is burned in a process that converts waste into new forms of useful energy. In Denmark’s case, that means that instead of being sent to landfills, rubbish is burned to produce heat and electricity at what are known as waste-to-energy plants.
Amagerforbrænding, Denmark’s second-largest waste company, handles approximately ten percent of the country’s waste. That trash either winds up at one of 12 recycling stations or at its waste-to-energy plant in Amager.
Jonas Nedenskov, an engineer with Amagerforbrænding, explained that the plant incinerates over 400,000 tonnes of waste per year, which is converted into “climate-friendly energy” that supplies 120,000 households with heat in the form of forced hot water and 50,000 households with electricity.
But Amagerforbrænding isn’t just burning waste; recycling is a large part of the company’s environmental efforts, and some 85 percent of the waste received at the recycling stations can be reused.
Amagerforbrænding hopes it can encourage people to recycle more. “Our task is to ensure that the collection and sorting of the many different plastics is as easy as possible,” Nedenskov said. Its latest initiative, to promote plastic recycling, is being carried out in co-operation with the city of Copenhagen.
Although incineration is a more environmentally-friendly process than landfilling, critics say it isn’t as green as its supporters make it out to be.
The process includes the emission of unhealthy toxins into the air, which is a concern to employees, the community directly surrounding the plant and the greater community.
Amagerforbrænding, according to Nedenskov, seeks to minimise the amount of toxins it releases by filtering its emissions to satisfy air quality requirements put out by environment agency Miljøstyrelsen.
But while emissions can be scrubbed, incineration’s other by-product is more difficult to deal with. After trash is burned, the leftover slag, made up mostly of metal, is unusable for anything other than road-building, contended Christian Poll of nature conservation society DN.
Essentially, the incinerators just “transform waste into concentrated material”, Poll said. “Those supporting incineration often forget to tell that story.”
While Poll agreed that incineration is “much better than landfilling, like we used 20 years ago”, Denmark should instead encourage people first and foremost to reduce the amount of waste they produce, reuse what they can, and then to recycle as much of the rest as possible.
A dispute between Amagerforbrænding and CONCITO, an environmental policy think-tank, surrounds this issue –Amagerforbrænding wishes to build a new incineration facility, while CONCITO argues that it is not entirely necessary.
While it does not support the current building proposals for the facility, CONCITO does back the facility’s overall expansion.
“We want the incinerator to be small so there’s room to make the change to recycling,” Poll said. “If it has a smaller capacity, there will be real incentives to generate less waste for incineration.”
Copenhagen’s deputy mayor for technical and environmental affairs, Ayfer Baykal (Socialistisk Folkeparti), said a compromise needs to be reached on the size of any new incinerators built in Amager. The city refused to back a loan guarantee to build two new furnaces, each capable of handling 35 tonnes of waste per hour.
“We don’t need the incinerators to be so large, because the amount of trash generated in Copenhagen is expected to fall by 20 percent in the coming years,” Baykal told Politiken newspaper.
Baykal declined to say what compromises the city hopes to make, but Mogens Lømborg of Amagerforbrænding toldPolitiken that the larger ovens would be more cost-effective in the long-run.
Currently, CONCITO is waiting to hear back from the board of Amagerforbrænding with what it hopes will be plans to include more recycling facilities.
Looking towards the future, Poll said there was reason to expect Copenhagen would continue to recycle more and incinerate less. Calling the migration from landfilling to incineration a “good step”, he said continued progress would take effort. “Everything is possible; you just have to want it.”
Not enough rubbish to go around
Jennifer Buley
July 22, 2011 – 12:00
Councils scramble for foreign rubbish to fuel nation’s waste-to-energy incinerators
They say that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. In Denmark, one man’s waste is another man’s warmth – and there isn’t enough of it to go around.
Denmark leads most EU countries in municipal waste incineration for energy and heating. The country’s state-of-the-art incineration plants convert burnable household waste into the energy that heats up people’s homes, while filtering out a high percentage of the poisons and preventing 95 percent of all waste from ending up in a landfill.
Because of the popularity of this model, however, a number of communities are having trouble getting their hands on enough rubbish to feed the furnaces – and that is pressing more and more councils to import burnable foreign waste.
Three months ago, Nykøbing Falster in southern Zealand became the first Danish council to begin importing German garbage for incineration as it was not getting sufficient burnable rubbish from Zealand itself to run its incinerators efficiently.
The problem is even bigger in more rural areas, including much of Jutland, where concentrations of people are not large enough to produce enough waste to run the incineration plants. Several Jutland plants therefore plan to begin importing rubbish from Great Britain to make up for chronic garbage shortages.
Yet despite the shortage of homegrown burnable waste, thirteen Jutland councils are now weighing the possibility of building a new mega-sized incineration plant in Kjellerup, between Viborg and Silkeborg.
To run the new waste-to-energy plant thousands of truckloads of foreign rubbish may have to be imported from Germany and Great Britain. That has led critics to question the intelligence of the project.
“What’s about to happen is socio-economically stupid,” Palle Mang, managing director for Nomi, a waste management company in Holstebro, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. “For a start, there’s not enough rubbish to ensure a sufficient supply for the incineration plants that already exist. If the plant in Kjellerup is built, we will come up short another 190,000 tonnes [of rubbish].”
Nomi is currently sourcing 4,000 tonnes of rubbish each month from outside the council just to keep its smaller incineration facility running.
But Flemming Christensen, managing director of the council-owned waste management company behind the Kjellerupproject, says that is just fine.
“I don’t see any problem with importing rubbish. It’s a really good idea to use rubbish for fuel. In that way we can reduce carbon dioxide emissions and help our neighbouring countries at the same time,” he said.
But the quality of the rubbish that is imported – as well as the distance and means by which it travels to get to the incinerator – will also have a big impact on whether carbon dioxide emissions are reduced or raised.
A recent study from the Technical University of Denmark revealed that high plastic levels in Danish household waste are the culprit for much higher carbon dioxide emissions from incineration practices than previously estimated.
The 13 councils are scheduled to meet about the proposed mega-incinerator project on September 1
http://cphpost.dk/news/national/not-enough-rubbish-go-around
Denmark’s carbon bomb
Jennifer Buley
April 8, 2011 – 09:00
Due to high levels of plastic incineration, carbon dioxide emissions are double the old estimate
A new study from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) indicates that Denmark’s carbon dioxide emissions are double the previous calculation and have probably been so for years.
Accordingly, Denmark is exceeding its carbon dioxide goals under the Kyoto Protocol.
Widespread municipal rubbish incineration – the same waste-to-energy system that has been touted internationally as a model for clean energy resourcefulness – is the main culprit.
The incineration itself is not necessarily the problem. It is just that there is too much plastic in our trash, say experts.
The new findings come from a current study on the composition of the nation’s household rubbish, by DTU associate professor Thomas Astrup. He found that the actual amount of ‘fossil content’ – plastics, in other words – in rubbish that is being incinerated is twice what authorities were estimating.
Although the study’s final results will not be ready until summer, the preliminary data was strong enough to convince the National Environmental Research Institute (DMU) to begin revising its annual report to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), which monitors whether countries are meeting their Kyoto Protocol commitments.
Based on the new carbon dioxide calculations from the DTU, Denmark is not.
“Our preliminary research shows that our emissions are in the range of 32.5 kilograms of carbon dioxide per gigajoule – which is twice as much as the 17.6 kilograms of carbon dioxide per gigajoule we used to think we were putting out from incinerators,” Astrup told science website videnskab.dk.
Some 700,000 tons more carbon dioxide escape into the atmosphere every year than previously thought, according to his computer models.
Denmark burns approximately half of all its household rubbish at incinerator plants that convert rubbish into energy for residential electricity and heat. Widespread municipal rubbish incineration means that just five percent of Danish rubbish gets buried in landfills. But it also means that we emit extra carbon dioxide.
“Carbon dioxide emissions were probably higher in previous years also. We just didn’t know,” Astrup told The Copenhagen Post.
According to a DMU report from 2010 – before the new data – the average Dane is responsible for releasing two and a half times more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than the average world citizen. That number could be much higher when new calculations are taken into account.
Double the plastic in household rubbish means double the carbon dioxide emissions, when that rubbish gets incinerated.
“In Denmark we often sort less and incinerate more than other countries,” Astrup said. “But it makes sense, because we have a very developed district heating system that is very efficient at turning it into energy. This makes Denmark somewhat different from most other countries.”
There is a misconception that state-of-the-art incineration plants reduce carbon dioxide emissions. But that is not the case. They filter out dioxins and other poisons that might otherwise escape into the air, and if they are highly efficient, as in Denmark, they provide more energy from less rubbish.
The key to reducing carbon dioxide emissions from the rubbish that is burned is making sure that there is less fossil content in it.
“The carbon dioxide coming from waste incinerators depends upon the waste composition and not the technology or efficiency of the plant,” said Astrup.
Separating and recycling more plastics from household rubbish would seem to be the answer, but Astrup warns that is not necessarily the ‘greenest’ solution:
“Burning the plastic in highly efficient Danish incinerators generates energy that we then do not need to produce at power plants using coal and gas. This saves carbon dioxide emissions elsewhere.”
“If the plastic can be sorted out in clean fractions and recycled properly to make new plastic, then it’s a good idea. But if it’s not clean, it can only be recycled into secondary materials, which saves less new plastic and less carbon dioxide emissions. Then it is better to incinerate the plastic in Denmark at high efficiency,” he added.
http://cphpost.dk/news/scitech/denmarks-carbon-bomb
Download PDF : Greentechmembers
Permission to publish poster from CTA
Oxford University Press (China) Ltd
(852) 2516 3210 direct line
(852) 2565 8491 fax
From: CHEUNG, Claudia [mailto:Claudia.CHEUNG@oup.com]
Sent: 17 July, 2012 14:42
To: ‘Polly Chan’
Cc: James Middleton
Subject: RE: Permission to publish poster from CTA
Dear Polly,
Please find the attached file for your reference of the poster from Clear The Air in our publication New Treasure Plus Workbook 2A.
Best regards,
Claudia Cheung
Assistant Editor
English Language Teaching
Oxford University Press (China) Ltd
(852) 2516 3210 direct line
(852) 2565 8491 fax
From: Polly Chan [mailto:polly.chan@hcdh.com.hk]
Sent: Friday, May 25, 2012 9:57 AM
To: CHEUNG, Claudia
Cc: James Middleton
Subject: RE: Permission to publish poster from CTA
Dear Ms Cheung,
With the permission from our organization, Oxford University Press (China) Ltd has the right to publish our poster(http://www.cleartheair.org.hk/press-and-media/idling-engine-poster/idling-engines-A3-poster-English.jpg) in their title, New Treasure Plus Workbook 2A.
With best regards,
Polly Chan
Clear The Air
From: CHEUNG, Claudia [mailto:Claudia.CHEUNG@oup.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 24, 2012 5:26 PM
To: Polly Chan
Subject: Permission to publish poster from CTA
Dear Polly,
Further to our telephone conversation, Clear The Air has granted us the permission to publish the poster from your website. Please reply to confirm that our company, Oxford University Press (China) Ltd, has the right to publish the poster (http://www.cleartheair.org.hk/press-and-media/idling-engine-poster/idling-engines-A3-poster-English.jpg) in our title, New Treasure Plus Workbook 2A.
A PDF copy of the page on which the poster appears will be sent to you in due course.
Thank you so much for your help.
Best regards,
Claudia Cheung
Assistant Editor
English Language Teaching
Oxford University Press (China) Ltd
(852) 2516 3210 direct line
(852) 2565 8491 fax
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Hong Kong is world’s most expensive retail destination.
Hong Kong wins world double !
Of course there was never any former Government administration / Developer nexus.
Hong Kong is world’s most expensive retail destination. (Locusts’ delight)
Hong Kong’s Central Is World’s Priciest Office Location
http://www.4hoteliers.com/4hots_nshw.php?mwi=10233
Hong Kong is world’s most expensive retail destination. Tuesday, 17th July 2012 Source : CBRE Group, Inc. |
Hong Kong is the world’s most expensive shopping destination as significant inbound tourist flows and continued increases in domestic wealth fuels occupier demand from international fashion and luxury retailers.
The CBRE rankings of prime global retail rents saw little change in the first quarter of 2012 (Q1 2012) compared to the previous quarter. Hong Kong remains at the top of the rankings with retail rents at US$3,864 per square foot (psf) per annum. New York retained the number two position at US$2,475 psf annum. Both cities experienced significant increases in retail rents quarter-over-quarter.
“As Manhattan’s prime retail zones continue to top US retail rents, we are also seeing consumer demand for higher-end market streets holding steady there, as well as in Los Angeles and Chicago,” said Anthony Buono, executive managing director, National Retail, CBRE. “Despite a still slow but improving economy, that consumer support has in turn encouraged investors to pay premium prices to buy into retail venues in these markets, as an be seen in the recently reported $700 million purchase by Vornado of the major retail space at 666 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.”
The remaining top five rankings were also unchanged from the prior quarter: Sydney (US$1,112 psf per annum) was third, followed by Tokyo (US$1025 psf per annum), with London (US$956 psf per annum) completing the top five as competition for prime locations in the city’s West End contributed to an annual rental increase of 5.6%.
Globally, total retail rents increased by a modest 0.8% quarter-over-quarter in Q1 2012 as concerns over the eurozone debt crisis and weak global economic growth continued to affect consumer and retailer confidence. Despite these fears, occupier demand for prime space in many major cities remained strong, and prime space was in short supply in many markets.
The report focuses exclusively on each city’s top tier retail streets, the asking rents for which represent the upper limits of rents for those cities. The asking rents in the report do not represent the overall retail rental market for the cities cited.
The Americas region led the way in Q1 2012 with retail rent growth of 3.4% quarter-over-quarter, largely due to significant demand in a handful of U.S. cities such as Washington DC, Miami and Seattle. Positive quarterly growth (0.5%) was also registered in Asia Pacific following strong interest from international, fashion and luxury retailers. Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) continued to be a target for many American brands; however, the region experienced significant rental declines in some markets, including Athens and Belgrade, and averaged a quarterly decline of -0.2%.
Overall, consumers maintained a cautious approach to spending in Q1 2012 due to the uncertain economic climate, particularly in Europe, although sales figures displayed an improvement on the previous quarter. Consumer spending rose in North America, while retail sales in Asia remained positive and benefited from a strong festive period. Despite occupier demand for prime space remaining strong and improved sales on the previous quarter by 0.5%, Europe is still being affected by consumers’ cautious approach to spending.
Ray Torto, Global Chief Economist, CBRE, commented, “Overall, this quarter has seen more positive aspects than the last; with improved consumer spending as well as steady occupier demand and new shopping centres bringing benefits to emerging markets. Despite concerns over the eurozone and a slowing world economy, retailer demand for prime space in major cities remains strong; however, it is in short supply in many markets. This mismatch between demand and supply means that activity levels are not as high as they could be. Equally, retailers continue to target the best locations in the more mature markets of Western Europe and the wealthier markets in the Asia Pacific region.”
“Cross border retailing is also increasing as middle class populations grow in emerging markets and retailers from more mature markets seek new opportunities for growth. The growing demand for modern, high quality retail space in emerging markets has led to a boom in shopping centre development which is making it easier for retailers to enter these territories.”
Commenting on trends in the EMEA region, Peter Gold, Head of Cross-Border Retail – EMEA, CBRE, said, “In Europe, occupier demand for prime space is still strong in spite of a very challenging consumer environment. U.S. retailers have been particularly active in seeking out new opportunities with the likes of Forever 21, Victoria’s Secret and Kate Spade having recently entered, or about to enter, the region.
The problem that many retailers are facing is the access to units in prime locations within Europe’s top tier cities. Activity levels are therefore not as high as they could be due to the mismatch between demand and supply. With much of the space currently under construction in Western Europe outside of these main cities, this problem will not be resolved in the short term, and is putting upward pressure on rents in some locations.”
Top 20 Global Retail Rental Markets
About CBRE Group, Inc.
CBRE Group, Inc., a Fortune 500 and S&P 500 company headquartered in Los Angeles, is the world’s largest commercial real estate services firm (in terms of 2011 revenue). CBRE offers strategic advice and execution for property sales and leasing; corporate services; property, facilities and project management; mortgage banking; appraisal and valuation; development services; investment management; and research and consulting.
Please visit our website at www.cbre.com
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-07-16/hong-kong-s-central-is-world-s-priciest-office-location
Bloomberg News
Hong Kong’s Central Is World’s Priciest Office Location
By Ailing Tan on July 16, 2012
The following table shows a summary of the top 50 most expensive office markets taken from CBRE Global Research and Consulting’s Prime Office Occupancy Costs survey.
The survey, conducted twice yearly, compares office occupation costs for prime office space in 133 cities worldwide as of March 31, 2012.
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US$ per*
Rank City Sq. Foot
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1 Hong Kong (Central), Hong Kong $248.83
2 London – Central (West End), United Kingdom $220.15
3 Tokyo, Japan $186.49
4 Beijing (Jianguomen – CBD), China $180.76
5 Moscow, Russian Federation $171.53
6 Beijing (Finance Street), China $166.89
7 Hong Kong (Kowloon), Hong Kong $158.72
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US$ per*
Rank City Sq. Foot
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8 São Paulo, Brazil $144.75
9 New Delhi (Connaught Place – CBD), India $140.21
10 London – Central (City), United Kingdom $131.51
11 Shanghai (Puxi), China $130.78
12 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil $128.02
13 Mumbai (Bandra Kurla Complex), India $126.88
14 Paris Ile-de-France, France $123.82
15 Sydney, Australia $117.88
16 Singapore, Singapore $117.39
17 Shanghai (Pudong), China $116.35
18 New York (Midtown Manhattan ), U.S. $114.30
19 Geneva, Switzerland $ 99.18
20 Mumbai (Nariman Point – CBD), India $ 97.32
21 Zurich, Switzerland $ 96.61
22 Caracas, Venezuela $ 95.68
23 Washington DC (Downtown), U.S. $ 94.51
24 Perth, Australia $ 93.63
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US$ per*
Rank City Sq. Foot
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25 Dubai, United Arab Emirates $ 92.56
26 Seoul (CBD), South Korea $ 90.70
27 Boston (Downtown), U.S. $ 87.50
28 Guangzhou, China $ 86.55
29 Istanbul, Turkey $ 82.78
30 Luxembourg City, Luxembourg $ 80.65
31 Brisbane, Australia $ 77.85
32 Los Angeles (Suburban), U.S. $ 77.41
33 Milan, Italy $ 76.80
34 Stockholm, Sweden $ 75.44
35 Seoul (Yeouido), South Korea $ 73.49
36 Manchester, United Kingdom $ 71.91
37 San Francisco (Downtown), U.S. $ 71.40
38 Toronto (Downtown), Canada $ 71.16
39 Edinburgh, United Kingdom $ 70.31
40 Aberdeen, United Kingdom $ 70.31
41 New York (Downtown Manhattan), U.S. $ 69.85
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US$ per*
Rank City Sq. Foot
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42 Birmingham, United Kingdom $ 69.64
43 Frankfurt am Main, Germany $ 68.63
44 Taipei, Taiwan $ 68.11
45 Bristol, United Kingdom $ 65.62
46 Calgary (Downtown), Canada $ 65.36
47 Oslo, Norway $ 65.15
48 Glasgow, United Kingdom $ 64.72
49 Vancouver (Downtown), Canada $ 63.73
50 Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam $ 63.34
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Note 1: (*) Annual cost. Note 2: Occupancy cost represents rent, plus local taxes, and service charges.
Source: CBRE Global Research and Consulting
To contact the reporter on this story: Ailing Tan in Singapore at atan193@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Marco Babic at mbabic@bloomberg.net
International Press Group Assails SCMP
Written by Our Correspondent | |
MONDAY, 02 JULY 2012 HTTP://WWW.ASIASENTINEL.COM/INDEX.PHP?OPTION=COM_CONTENT&TASK=VIEW&ID=4650&ITEMID=224 | |
Rising concern over censorship at Hong Kong’s premier paper The International Federation of Journalists, which claims to represent 600,000 journalists in 131 countries across the world, has expressed deep concern over the independence of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post in the wake of the emasculation of a story on the death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang. The organization called on WangXiangwei, the mainland-born editor in chief of the paper, who was appointed in February over the misgivings of the city’s journalistic community, to resign his membership in the Jilin branch of the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, saying his membership leads to “questions as to his independence and impartiality.” The newspaper hits well above its weight in the region as the English-language reference point for political reporting on China. Although it has been criticized in the past since ownership passed to the family of Malaysian sugar tycoon Robert Kuok in 1993, it remains the most complete journalistic record of what goes on inside the country for western observers. It has been allowed to establish news bureaus in Beijing and Shanghai which Hong Kong’s Chinese language press is denied. Although it has a strong edge on mainland reporting and leaders on China content, many are concerned that aggressive reporting is a thing of the past. Sources inside the paper say the mood is increasingly darkening as the negative publicity ripples out, with the journalistic and marketing teams facing derision from their contacts. Wang is said to have adopted a permanents cowl and is interacting selectively with the Chinese staff he has hired from China, and is curt and abrupt with everybody else. “Management has been seized with paranoia about Hong Kong media leaks,” a source said. “There have been admonishments to all staff, particularly editorial, not to speak to reporters from other organizations or to answer media queries. Everything is to be referred to the marketing department.” Asia Sentinel first reported on misgivings over Wang’s appointment as chief editor on Feb. 2 and carried three stories about an exchange of emails between Wang and Alex Price, a senior sub-editor at the paper over the June reduction of a story to a brief about Li’s suspicious death in a Hunan hospital on June 6. The partly blind Li died a week after giving an interview to a Hong Kong television statement on his treatment in prison. He was said to have hanged himself, a report that caused a furor in China that is still going on. The reports by Asia Sentinel and other publications claim that Wang directed staff to cover the story as briefly as possible, rather than giving the story the extensive coverage undertaken by other media outlets. When Price, emailed Wang for an explanation, Wang is alleged to have replied, “I don’t have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don’t like it, you know what to do.” In other worrying news, the South China Morning Post has recently discontinued the contracts of a number of its most experienced foreign journalists, the IFJ reported. Paul Mooney, an accomplished journalist who was recently celebrated with a number of Human Rights Press Awards in Hong Kong, was informed by Wang that his contract will not be renewed when it expires in September. Asia Sentinel carried Mooney’s story of his dismissal. “Although Wang said the reason for not renewing my contract was budget cuts, I doubt that is the case”, Mooney told the journalism federation. “Wang never assigned any China news stories to me, preferring to ask journalists from Hong Kong to cover them”. Mooney also recalled an occasion where Wang asked a Chinese journalist to conduct an interview with the Dalai Lama instead of him, despite the Dalai Lama already having accepted his request for an interview. In addition to Mooney, two other experienced journalists from the paper’s China desk have left due to disagreements with Wang over news coverage. “Confidence in the press relies upon public trust that the news is being reported free from political consideration”, IFJ Asia-Pacific said. “As a publicly listed company, and one of Hong Kong’s oldest English language newspapers, the IFJ urges Wang Xiangwei to explain recent editorial and staffing decisions”. The journalism federation also called for Robert Kuok, the Malaysian majority shareholder of the South China Morning Post, to investigate the claims of political censorship at the paper and report his findings to the public and its share-holders. The Hong Kong Journalists Association recently announced the results of a media survey, which revealed that 92.7 percent of respondents from Hong Kong’s media believe that press freedom in the territory is being curtailed, with 79.2 percent of respondents also believing that self-censorship in Hong Kong is more serious a problem in 2012 than it was in 2005. Ever notice that most of the media is controlled by tycoons, politicians and governments? We aren’t. |
Former SCMP journos write open letter to Hui Kuok
http://shanghaiist.com/tags/wangxiangwei
The heat continues to be on SCMP’s new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei.
23 former journalists with the South China Morning Post have written an open letter addressed to the paper’s group executive director, Hui Kuok (also the daughter of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok who now owns a controlling interest in the paper). In the letter, they expressed concern over the decision by new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei toreduce a major breaking story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang to a brief:
Excerpt from the letter via Asia Sentinel which has been closely following the saga:
“The latest dispute over the curtailed coverage of the Li Wangyang story has angered a great many of the Post’s traditional readers and supporters,” the former Post journalists said in the letter. “It suggests that the charges of the paper’s critics are justified. We understand that news judgments have to be made in haste and occasional errors are to be expected. “Some of the explanations for the Li Wangwang decision suggest, though, that a change in policy has taken place. The idea that the story needed to be downplayed because it had received little or no coverage on CCTV is unworthy of the Post’s traditions as an independent and enterprising newspaper. CCTV no doubt has a role as a source of information. If used as an indicator of news values it is a source of ignorance.
“We are distressed to hear that a senior editor who asked about the decision was told that “if you don’t like it you know what to do”. We would like to believe that this was a careless piece of phraseology penned in a moment of excitement but it sounds suspiciously as if staff are no longer expected to understand or support the newspaper’s policy, merely to follow instructions.
“We are concerned by all this not only because we were once happy and proud to work for the Post, and do not like to see its reputation deteriorate, but also because the newspaper has historically been an important civic resource for the people of Hong Kong. It will be a serious public loss if the newspaper continues to go downhill.
“The constant changes in the editorship of the Post suggest that either the owners do not know what they want, or they want something that no credible senior journalists will provide. We urge you to protect and cherish the South China Morning Post’s traditions of independence, truthfulness and service to its readers.
“We urge you to ensure that stories are evaluated on the basis of their interest to Hong Kong readers. We urge you to ensure that Post journalists are able to work according to an explicit and understood editorial policy. We urge you to encourage the newspaper’s management to give civil answers to civil questions. We hope that our connections with the Post will continue to be a source of pride, in its continuing commitment to independence, accuracy and public service.”http://shanghaiist.com/2012/07/16/scmp-open-letter.php
Former SCMP journos write open letter to Hui Kuok
The heat continues to be on SCMP’s new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei. 23 former journalists with the South China Morning Post have written an open letter addressed to the paper’s group executive director, Hui Kuok (also the daughter of Malaysian tycoon Robert Kuok who now owns a controlling interest in the paper). In the letter, they expressed concern over the decision by new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei to reduce a major breaking story on the suspicious…
SCMP editor Wang Xiangwei admits “bad call”
The SCMP’s new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei has a lot of explaining to do. SCMP’s new editor-in-chief WangXiangwei, who has been accused by his own staff of attempting to turn the paper into another China Daily and for replacing all of his best China reporters (such as the multiple-award winning Paul Mooney), has admitted to the AFP that his decision to reduce a major breaking story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li…more ›
NewsKenneth TanJul 2, 20120 Comments
Veteran reporter Paul Mooney tells how he got sidelined by new SCMP editor Wang Xiangwei
If there is one thing you need to read today, this is it: Multiple award-winning veteran reporter Paul Mooney, who has picked up some 10 awards in his last three years on contract with the South China Morning Post (that’s on top of his 19 years freelancing for them before that), says the paper “no longer has the status it had in the late 1990s” and “may be beyond the point of return”.
Is the SCMP getting bought over by Beijing?
Something is happening at the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post, an English-language paper that has long prided itself on its fierce independence and one of the last bastions of serious journalism in this part of the world. Asia Sentinel spills the beans on a heated exchange between a senior sub-editor at the paper Alex Price and the new editor-in-chief Wang Xiangwei following a decision to reduce a major breaking story on the suspicious death of Tiananmen dissident Li Wangyang to a brief:more ›
過檔龍躉懸浮粒子多十倍
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Rewarded for a woeful track record
SCMP Letters – 16 July 2012
I agree with Gerard Crawford who said Edward Yau Tang-wah was an “abject failure” when he was environment minister (“Dismissal of political opposition doesn’t look like government ‘for the people'”, July 6).
It is therefore outrageous that given his failings he has become director of the Chief Executive’s Office. His appointment represents one of the worst features of civil service culture – highly paid public servants going from one senior position to another regardless of their performance.
Under Yau’s watch from 2007 to 2012, Hong Kong’s environment has deteriorated.
His signal “achievement” on air quality was a ban on idling engines that was hedged to the point of being unenforceable. Despite the millions spent publicising the ban, idling engines are still everywhere and I am not aware of anyone being prosecuted.
Yau also failed to deal with the long-standing problem of municipal waste disposal. Recycling remains the rudimentary collection of paper, plastic and metal in coloured bins, with no monitoring of waste contractors or public education on sorting of waste. No credible evidence has substantiated Yau’s claim of a 52 per cent recycling rate.
Instead, he expended a huge effort and public money on pushing for construction of the world’s largest and costliest incinerator that would have used outdated technology and despoiled a pristine island.
He took the path of least resistance via the usual mega-infrastructure approach rather than the harder route of a programme covering all of Hong Kong to reduce waste at source and nurture a viable recycling industry.
To add insult to injury, he took the most foreign trips among all senior officials, many of those trips ostensibly to learn about how other countries treat municipal waste.
His performance would not have been tolerated had he been employed in the private sector. In government, however, it gets him another highly paid job as gatekeeper to the chief executive.
Tom Yam, Lantau