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March, 2012:

Hong Kong: Asia’s Waste City?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gpwzBbXzAOs&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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Driving home the point

SCMP – Laisee

The Environmental Protection Department may like to take a close look at three cheery studies on pollution published recently.

One study that followed 20,000 women over a decade found that breathing in levels of polluted air greatly accelerates declines in measures of memory and attention span, The New York Times reports. Another study in Boston found that on days when the concentrations of roadside pollution rose to moderate levels, according to the federal air quality index, the risk of stroke increased by 30 per cent. US air pollution indexes are much tighter than the Hong Kong government’s air pollution index. Another report in The Journal of the American Medical Association by scientists at the University of Paris Descartes in France highlighted the link between short-term exposure to air pollution and cardiovascular disease. Pollutants in roadside emissions such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulphur dioxide and others were found to raise a person’s immediate risk of heart attack.

Govt urged to tackle air pollution

http://rthk.hk/rthk/news/englishnews/news.htm?main&20120316&56&826302

Govt urged to tackle air pollution
16-03-2012

http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/video/asx/mfile_826302_1.asx

http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/news/video/ram/mfile_826302_1.ram

Tony Flores reports
The government has been urged to take prompt action to improve Hong Kong’s air quality. The call was made by Professor Alexis Lau from the University of Science and Technology. He said the territory was lagging behind the mainland in tackling air pollution.

British Airways, climate change and a load of rubbish

Download PDF : The Guardian March 16 2012

Wen: next HK chief will have ‘majority’ support

Clear the Air says:

We just had a jet-set joyriding Chief Executive who is departing in 2012 (possibly sooner than he expects), leaving us with filthy air, the highest office and highest residential rents in the world and even richer tycoons then when he took up office.

Clear the Air has a simple message to the people of Hong Kong- since you cannot choose your own Chief Executive till 2017 then vote with your feet and your wallets and boycott the services offered by

the tycoons who look after their own interests and not those of the Hong Kong people.

Wen: next HK chief will have ‘majority’ support

Premier insists Hongkongers will be behind whoever the Election Committee endorses in March 25 poll

Colleen Lee 
Mar 15, 2012

South China Morning Post

Premier Wen Jiabao yesterday assured Hongkongers that the March 25 chief executive election will produce a leader who enjoys the support of the “vast majority” of the city.

Wen’s remarks, at the final news conference of his tenure following the closing ceremony of the National People’s Congress session in Beijing, came amid increasing speculation over which of the two front runners, Henry Tang Ying-yen and Leung Chun-ying, will win Beijing’s approval ahead of the Election Committee’s vote on March 25.

Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office director Wang Guangya said last July that the city’s next leader, who will take over from Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in July, will require a “rather high degree of acceptance” by the public.

“I believe that as long as the principles of openness, justice and fairness are observed and the relevant legal procedures are complied with, the Hong Kong people will elect a chief executive who enjoys the support of the vast majority of the people in Hong Kong,” Wen said.

Despite the city’s per capita GDP reaching a record high of US$34,200 last year, Wen added, Hong Kong still faced challenges in view of economic uncertainty and a widening income gap. “Hong Kong now faces both difficulties and opportunities,” he said. “The financial crisis in the world and the European debt crisis have exerted an adverse impact on Hong Kong and pressure is still there. “Hong Kong is under the dual pressures of slowing economic growth and inflation. Under such circumstances, Hong Kong must continue to work hard to develop the economy, improve people’s lives, advance democracy and maintain social harmony.”

Wen also cited a saying, attributed to late paramount leader Deng Xiaoping , that “there should be confidence that the Hong Kong people can run Hong Kong well”.  Critics were divided over whether Wen’s comments indicated Beijing’s preferred candidate, with the political pundit James Sung Lap-kung saying they had covered only matters of principle and were impartial.  “His stress on openness, justice and fairness implies that he doesn’t want to see smear campaigns,” Sung said, adding that he believed the social and economic issues touched on were the areas that Beijing wanted the next leader to address.

Commentator Allen Lee Peng-fei said he believed Wen’s mention of a leader backed by “the vast majority” suggested Beijing preferred Leung, who has been leading in opinion polls by 20 or more percentage points for several weeks. His view was echoed by Leung’s supporters, including Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference delegate Lew Mon-hung.  Political scientist Ivan Choy Chi-keung said Wen’s remarks suggested the chances of a failed election were diminishing. “He seems to stress that the problem [of recent scandals] can be solved as long as the election is held according to procedures and in a fair and just manner,” Choy said. Local NPC deputy Maria Tam Wai-chu said she believed Wen’s remarks were objective and had no implications for either candidate.

In a statement, Tang said he agreed with Wen that the city would elect a leader backed by the vast majority and expressed confidence in his abilities to handle the challenges spelled out by Wen.  Leung made no comment. Pan-democratic candidate Albert Ho Chun-yan, who has no chance of winning, said a widely supported chief executive could be elected only if there was universal suffrage.

colleen.lee@scmp.com

Zeman gives Tang full backing in race for top job
Amy Nip and Tanna Chong
Mar 14, 2012
Entrepreneur Allan Zeman, who earlier hinted he would only vote for chief executive candidate Henry Tang Ying-yen if he improved his popularity in opinion polls, has backtracked to give Tang his full support.  The chairman of Ocean Park and Lan Kwai Fong Holdings previously stated that he would only vote for the former chief secretary if he closed the gap on rival Leung Chun-ying to 20 percentage points.

Now he is refusing to specify a threshold, saying public opinion has changed and it looks good for Tang.  Zeman, a long-time Tang supporter, will vote for him in the March 25 election after recent events.

Half Shenzhen’s buses to be electric or hybrid

Plan to replace more than 50pc of its combustion engine fleet would reduce dangerous air pollution

Fiona Tam 
Mar 13, 2012

In a bid to become China’s electric vehicle capital, Shenzhen has set a goal to replace more than 50 per cent of its combustion engine buses with electric or hybrid ones by 2015, a move that would reduce air pollution, especially of dangerous fine respirable particles.

Shenzhen mayor Xu Qin said during the current National People’s Congress in Beijing that within three years the city would ban from the road all vehicles that failed to meet the country’s advanced emission standards.

The “green” credentials of electric cars is controversial. Some researchers say that only when renewable sources – such as solar, wind or hydropower – are used in making the car and generating the electricity to run it will emissions truly fall to zero. Nevertheless, Xu said adopting electric would greatly reduce air pollution in Shenzhen, which ranks second to Beijing as having the most vehicles on the mainland.

“Electric cars consume electricity rather than petrol, so at least there’ll be zero emission of PM2.5 from the public transport system,” he was quoted as saying by yesterday’s Nanfang Daily. PM2.5 refers to respirable suspended particulates of 2.5 microns or less, which include cancer-causing particles.

Xu said 3,000 electric or hybrid vehicles were put into use in Shenzhen last year, and a further 2,000 were planned for this year.

Shenzhen’s transport commission said earlier that the city planned to put on the road 5,000 hybrid and 1,000 electric buses, and 3,000 electric taxis, by the end of 2015.

This could cut 300,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, The Economic Observer reported.

According to Shenzhen’s environmental protection bureau, the city’s roughly 2.3 million vehicles emitted nearly 50 per cent of total PM2.5 and nitrogen oxides. Official figures suggest that 23 per cent of the city’s emissions come from its 13,000 buses and 14,000 taxis.

Professor Eric Cheng, a specialist in electric vehicles at Polytechnic University, said Hong Kong, which offers fewer government subsidies to promote use of electric vehicles, was unlikely to follow Shenzhen’s example. “Everybody wants such a move,” he said. “But it’s nearly impossible for Hong Kong’s privately owned bus operators to replace half of their vehicles with electric or hybrid ones, as the cost is too high. Without abundant government subsidies, it could take a decade for Hong Kong’s bus companies to replace half of the buses with electric or hybrid ones.”

Although coal accounts for more than 80 per cent of the fuel mix in China’s power plants, Cheng said: “Filters in power plants are much more advanced than those on buses or taxis, and the percentage of electricity from coal will surely decrease if we have an eye on the future.”

In Shenzhen, every electric bus put on the road has received a one million yuan (HK$1.22 million) subsidy since 2010, half from the central government and half from Shenzhen’s. Subsidies for hybrid buses have increased from 300,000 to 600,000 yuan last year.

fiona.tam@scmp.com

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A taxi is charged in Shenzhen. The city, which ranks second to Beijing as having the most vehicles of all kinds on the mainland, is concerned about fine respirable particles.
Photo: Edward Wong

Burning issue of Shek Kwu Chau

SCMP – Laisee

The campaign to block the government’s proposed incinerator on the island of Shek Kwu Chau is reaching a critical phase. Opponents applied earlier this month for leave to apply for a judicial review of the Environmental Impact Assessment of the proposed waste management scheme and the decision by the Town Planning Board and the Director of Environmental Protection to rezone Shek Kwu Chau to change its legal status, enabling the incinerator to be built.

However, the government has said it intends to oppose the attempt to initiate a judicial review. The EPD will shortly be asking the Legislative Council for financing for the project. A protest march is planned for Sunday at 3.30pm from Pier 6 in Central. Opponents object to the building of the incinerator at Shek Kwu Chau, a place of natural beauty, and also believe the government is employing outdated “mass burn” technology when more advanced, cheaper and efficient waste to energy technology could be used.

Public opinion key to clearing the air

SCMP – 12 March 2012

Mixed messages have further clouded the issue of urban air quality in China. First the State Council adopted revised pollution standards recommended by the environment ministry that include smog-related pollutants such as fine particles. Within two days a senior environmental official admitted the new standards, which still lag those in the West, posed severe challenges that could take decades to overcome amid chronic smog problems and rapid economic development. Then Premier Wen Jiabao assured the annual meeting of the National People’s Congress the government would not pursue growth at the cost of public health or the environment, and that it was capable of striking a fine balance. But for the first time since his government rolled out goals for pollution curbs and energy conservation, his annual policy speech omitted details of missed targets, prompting concerns that the truth about pollution is too bleak to be made public. The National Development and Reform Commission later confirmed that missed annual targets included both energy and carbon intensity and nitrogen oxides, which add to ground-level ozone formation and can cause lung damage.

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has cited the priority of economic development in fending off demands from developed countries that it do more to tackle global warming. But it has become increasingly difficult for the central government to sell that argument to its own people. Mounting public concern over increasingly bad air in urban areas and misleading official pollution readings finally forced its hand on new standards for smog-related pollutants. Health studies have shown a close association between PM2.5 (respirable airborne particles smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter that can penetrate the lungs) from vehicle exhausts, coal-fired power stations and factories, and premature death from heart and lung disease.

Deputy Environment Minister Wu Xiaoqing said at least two-thirds of mainland cities – including Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou – failed the new standards, which were far less strict than recommended by the World Health Organisation. Nonetheless, environmentalists agreed that they were a landmark move. Any doubts that this is a pressing health issue for the mainland were erased by a recent WHO survey of air quality in 1,100 cities that showed Beijing was the 10th dirtiest capital in the world and 26th among 30 mainland cities surveyed. Wu is right to say that the challenge of improving air quality calls for years of unremitting effort from everyone. The adoption of the new standards shows that public opinion is a critical factor. In that respect, hopefully, they will result in more transparency and increasing pressure on mainland authorities to step up efforts to control pollution.

Delta leads nation on dirty-air data

Regional partners, including Hong Kong, team up to unveil real-time readings on toxic fine particles
Shi Jiangtao in Beijing and Cheung Chi-fai
Mar 09, 2012

The Pearl River Delta is a step ahead in releasing up-to-the-hour information on microscopic pollutants across the region, including Hong Kong, as it seeks to clear the air on a pressing environmental threat.

Hong Kong and Guangdong province yesterday published on government websites key particle readings from the country’s largest network for air-quality detection, consisting of 31 stations.

Xiamen in Fujian province also released yesterday’s air-quality readings from its three monitoring stations.

The fine particles, known as PM 2.5, are widely seen as more hazardous to health compared to larger particles because of their ability to penetrate blood vessels directly. PM2.5 refers to particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometres in diameter.

An environmental expert says the release of data was a symbolic and significant move clearly meant to answer concerns about pollution and reverse widespread distrust of official air readings. It also sets an example for the rest of the country, says Professor Chen Zunrong, from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

“It is a major step forward in promoting transparency of government information that will help the public understand the truth about air pollution,” Chen said.

Hourly and 24-hour average readings of the fine particles at 17 stations in the delta region and 14 stations in Hong Kong can now be viewed on the websites of the Guangdong Environment Protection Bureau and Hong Kong’s Environmental Protection Department. Hong Kong already publishes online the levels of other pollutants, such as ozone and nitrogen dioxide.

Neither website covers readings from across the border.

Chen said other regions, especially major cities, were expected to feel the heat and learn from the delta on how it was seeking to control air pollution.

Shanghai plans to publish data on fine particles from June, while Tianjin has yet to unveil a timetable.

Chen believed the public would have greater expectations for clear air, which could translate to heightened pressure on local authorities in tackling rampant pollution.

“Information transparency will certainly help the government curb pollution, like what we have seen in Hong Kong,” he said.

The launch came just days after the central government released revised national standards on air quality, covering the smog-inducing fine particles.

Fine particles had long been omitted from the country’s pollution parameters. But it was at the centre of a national outcry last year when the government’s secrecy over smog problems in major cities caused concern.

In January, Beijing became the first city on the mainland to publish the fine particles readings. However, the data, based on a single monitoring station, was widely seen as incomplete and ineffective in gauging the capital’s serious smog problems.

Mainland environmentalists hailed the latest move of publishing data as a landmark step in the delta’s synergy on pollution control and transparency. Green activists in Hong Kong welcomed it with caution, particularly over what they said were lax standards on pollution data.

Zhou Rong, a Greenpeace China campaigner, said residents of the delta region should be grateful that Hong Kong played a critical role in facilitating the data’s release.

Zhou said “the decision to release the pollution data could be largely attributed to the push from Hong Kong and environmental awareness in the region”.

Zhou noted that Guangdong had done a better job in researching and taking action against pollution than other regions over the years.

The province has been at the forefront of tackling air pollution through co-operation with Hong Kong. In 2002, both sides signed a pact to reduce emissions by up to 55 per cent below 1997 levels by 2010.

Helen Choy Shuk-yee, of the Clean Air Network, welcomed the disclosure but was concerned about lax standards on fine particles being introduced no earlier than 2014 in revised air quality objectives.

Choy said none of the readings at the 14 Hong Kong monitoring stations exceeded the proposed standard, at 75 micrograms on a 24-hour average. If standards were tightened to meet World Health Organisation guidelines at 25 micrograms, up to six stations, including all three roadside stations in Causeway Bay, Mong Kok and Central, would fail.

A spokeswoman for the Environmental Protection Department said the fine particle concentration yesterday was within the normal range. She said there was a 17 per cent drop in the fine particles level between 2005 and 2011.

Ministry of Health to research safeguards against PM2.5

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2012-03-09/221424089579.shtml

March 09, 2012

3月5日,参加十一届全国人民代表大会第五次会议的全国政协委员、卫生部部长陈竺在被媒体截住接受采访时向记者介绍,3年来,财政投入医改的新增经费是11000多亿元人民币,‘十二五’期间,政府对医改的投入还会有更大的增加。中新社记者 泱波 摄

While talking to reporters at the 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress, CPPCC member and Minister of Health Chen Zhu said that over the past three years the government has allocated more than CNY 1.1 trillion [app. USD 174.3 million] for ongoing healthcare reforms, and that they will continue to increase funding throughout the 12thFive-Year Plan. Photo by Yang Bo, journalist at China News Service.

China News Service newswire; March 09, Beijing (journalists Shi Yan and Tian Jun): Chinese Minister of Health Chen Zhu on March 09 revealed that the Ministry of Health is organizing a team to research effective safeguards against PM2.5.

Chen Zhu made the above remarks while speaking with China News Service reporters during an intermission at the 5th session of the 11th National People’s Congress on March 09.

PM2.5 are also called inhalable particles. They seriously compromise air quality and visibility. Listed in the agenda presented by State Council premier Wen Jiabao on March 05 is an item for PM2.5 testing, to be conducted this year in vital areas such as the Beijing-Tianjin-Shijiazhuang metro area, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, as well as all other municipalities subordinate to the central government and all provincial capitals. By 2015 the project will be expanded to include all cities at or above the prefecture level.

Chen Zhu said that, unlike the routine readings done by the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Health will focus on the impact of PM2.5 on [public] health, and research the link between inhalable particles and respiratory and cardiovascular disease.

Chen also revealed that the Ministry of Health is mulling a partnership with other arms of the central government – namely MIIT – to introduce tobacco control regulations at the national level. China joined the FCTC in 2006. Significant progress has been in made in controlling tobacco use but the public is demanding that more be done in this area.

“We issued a ministerial directive, and despite criticism that an order from the minister was merely departmental policy and would not have the desired effect, we were still able to express where the government stood on this matter,” stressed Chen.

Minister of Industry and Information Technology Miao Wei said recently that MIIT is currently drawing up a plan for FCTC implementation and will clarify the rules regarding messages on cigarette packaging alerting users to the health risks of smoking.

During an interview with reporters on March 09, Chen Zhu said they would continue to adjust the tobacco tax: “We have been doing this all along. We made an adjustment last year, but it was for luxury cigarettes only. This didn’t really help control the number of smokers. An upward adjustment on mid-range and low-priced cigarettes will definitely happen soon,” he said.

As to whether or not the public would back the measure, Chen Zhu said he was very confident they would: “I think the general public will support it because adolescents are the most sensitive to tobacco prices, and tobacco is harming adolescents more than any other group. Raise prices just a little higher, and the youth are likely to opt out …  According to our calculations, after we raise the tobacco tax there will be a more substantial drop in the number of smokers.”

As to whether or not a tax hike would be detrimental to fiscal revenues, Chen Zhu responded in the negative: “This won’t have any impact on fiscal revenues. Based on the experience of Western countries, there might even be an increase in revenues for a period of time.”