Hong Kong Standard
Less than 45percent of the HK$5.5 billion budget earmarked to combat air pollution over the past 10 years has been spent.
Kenneth Foo
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Less than 45percent of the HK$5.5 billion budget earmarked to combat air pollution over the past 10 years has been spent.
That’s the claim of the Clean Air Network following its study of government spending on anti-pollution measures from 1999 to 2010. The group said there is a gross discrepancy between the allocated budget and the amount spent.
It blames the Environmental Protection Department for its ineffective allocation of funds and enacting severely flawed policies.
“Our analysis shows that there is an obvious under-utilization of resources and great inefficiency in the methods used by the government to tackle our growing air-pollution problem,” group campaign manager Erica Chan Fong- ying said.
“This clearly shows that air quality has never been one of the government’s top priorities.”
Chan said an example of a plan that lacks foresight is the 2007 subsidy scheme to encourage early replacement of pre-Euro and Euro I commercial diesel vehicles.
Of all existing schemes, this had the least funds used, with only 19percent of the HK$2.5 billion available being taken up.
During that time, only 16,000 out of 59,000 eligible commercial vehicles applied for the one-off subsidy.
The group said the low popularity was down to the subsidy being too small to be an effective incentive.