Pollution targets slammed as just hot air

Thursday, February 07, 2013

The Public Accounts Committee has criticized government efforts in tackling air pollution and for endangering public health.

The committee was responding to a report from the Auditor, which said the territory had never managed to fully achieve its air quality objectives set in 1987, and that pollution is getting worse.

The committee said that although the Environmental Protection Department had set a performance target that there should not be a day on which the air pollution index exceeds 100, the department had never achieved this target since it was adopted in 2006.

“The committee is disappointed and dissatisfied about the administration’s progress in tackling air pollution over the years,” PAC chairman Abraham Shek Lai-him, of The Professionals Forum, said.

“The committee is very concerned about the adverse health effects of air pollution, and is strongly of the view that government expenditure should be better spent on preventive measures to protect public health, by improving air quality, than on medical costs arising from curing health problems associated with air pollution,” Shek said.

The committee hopes the administration will formulate new measures to reduce emissions from vehicles, marine vessels and power plants as well as those coming from the Pearl River Delta region.

“In adopting a `carrot and stick’ approach, a right balance between incentives and disincentives must be struck to ensure the effectiveness of these measures and the prudent use of public money,” Shek said.

He added that the committee expects the administration to shortly announce its time targets, with milestones, and to progressively achieve the new air quality objectives that will come into effect from next year.

The administration promised that new air quality targets will be unveiled soon.

A committee member, Kenneth Leung, said it is “unsatisfactory” for the Environmental Protection Department to have never achieved its targets.

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