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April 22nd, 2016:

China trash incinerator project called off after protest

Apr 22nd, 2016
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-3553251/China-trash-incinerator-project-called-protest.html#ixzz46Y06bV00

Authorities in eastern China with more sense than Hong Kong’s lying ‘landfills are full’ ENB fools have halted plans to build a trash incinerator after rowdy street protests by residents and the arrests of two women.

The Haiyan county government in Zhejiang province said in a statement Friday that hundreds of residents began to gather illegally Wednesday and blocked roads. The demonstration escalated on Thursday evening when the mob attacked a local government building, smashing objects and causing injuries to police officer and bystanders, it said.

A 19-year-old woman was detained on charges of spreading unverified gory pictures and videos on the Internet, which were viewed more than 5,000 times. Another woman was charged with spreading insults against local officials, the government said.

The Haiyan government first revealed plans for the project on April 12, saying it was needed to help dispose of the 450 tons of solid waste that residents are generating every day.

No reason was given for the cancellation.

Recent years have seen a growing number of protests against incinerators, chemical plants and other projects believed to threaten the environment and living conditions.

Those have generally been permitted despite the ruling Communist Party’s pervasive crackdown on independent organizers and political critics, although arrests often follow once demonstrations die down.

Environmental safety concerns have been further fueled by a string of serious accidents involving deadly chemicals in China.

In August, 173 people, many of them firefighters, were killed in a chemical explosion in the port of Tianjin involving 700 tons of highly toxic sodium cyanide. Investigators said the warehouses storing the chemicals had been built too close to residential units and numerous people were arrested for violating regulations on safe distances.

Environment minister unveils carbon reduction pledge for Hong Kong but local conservationists sceptical

Apr 22nd, 2016
by Editor.
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CTA says:

Is this the ENB which claimed our recycling rate was 52% until exposed at 1/2 that by Operation Green Fence , which has no source separation of waste legislation, which stated our landfills will be full by 2018 whereas if we use the sewers (UK CIWEM worldwide policy) for food waste we actually have 39 years of landfill life left?

Are these trustworthy people ?

Reduce carbon by 2020 – but the incinerator will commence in 2013 & for every kg of MSW burned you get 1 kg of CO2 produced, alongside the other deadly toxins

Of course if they had not lied about the landfill life, there would not have been any incinerator approval as they hoodwinked Legco

Meanwhile, where is our Zero Waste policy ?

Source URL: http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/health-environment/article/1937773/environment-minister-unveils-carbon-reduction

Event timed with Earth Day is government’s first major climate change initiative since Paris summit

Dozens of government organisations, large corporations and dignitaries made a joint pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change on Earth Day, but some conservationists were already casting doubt about the agreement’s effectiveness.

The launch ceremony for “Carbon Reduction in Hong Kong” at Open University on Friday was the first major initiative to draw government participation since the United Nations climate change summit in Paris last December.

Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing said Hong Kong had an important role to play in the global battle against climate change, noting the city produced one-thousandth of the world’s greenhouse gases, despite having a population of just over seven million.

Wong added the government’s Steering Committee on Climate Change, set up after the Paris talks, would hold a public engagement forum in July to listen to stakeholders’ views, with an eye to formulating a proposal by the end of the year.

It was revealed from the committee’s first meeting earlier this month that Hong Kong was on track to reduce carbon intensity – the ratio of produced carbon dioxide to gross domestic product – by 50 to 60 per cent by 2020. Green groups have called for the government’s framework to extend beyond 2020.

Albert Lai, CEO of the environmental consultancy firm Carbon Care Asia, said it was up to the government to draw up concrete plans.

He also said the government had overlooked the impact of “embedded carbon” – a term for emissions associated the production of a product – from goods imported from overseas, such as mobile phones.

Reducing embedded emissions started with changing people’s everyday habits, Lai added. But he stated making headway would be an uphill battle.

Southern District Councillor Paul Zimmerman, a conservationist who founded the urban planning think tank Designing Hong Kong [3], echoed Lai’s views.

A guest at Friday’s ceremony, Zimmerman posted a photo on his Facebook page [5] showing bottles of water distributed at the venue to demonstrate how difficult it was for people to abandon “stubborn” habits.

John Sayer, former director general of Oxfam Hong Kong [6] and now with Carbon Care Asia, went further, calling the local initiative “ridiculous”. He added carbon reduction could only be tackled with legislation, price signal adjustments and education.