LegCo unanimously passes Motion to Improve Air Quality laying groundwork for tougher government initiatives on Hong Kong air pollution
(Hong Kong, 5 May 2010)
Yesterday was a momentous day in the fight for clean air: Hong Kong’s Legislative Council unanimously passed a Motion to Improve Air Quality.
The original motion which calls for better coordination and warning systems for air pollution, as well as many important roadside clean-up measures was originally proposed by Councillor, Kam Na Wai. The original motion was amended by Councillors Audrey Eu Yuet-mee and Cyd Ho Sau-lan, to include green building and development recommendations plus increased subsidies for the transport industry. The exact language of the approved motion can be found below.
Numerous lawmakers made statements expressing their dissatisfaction about continued government inaction about air pollution, as well as the lack of a warning system. The great majority of councillors referred to the recent departure of well-known public health expert, Professor Anthony Hedley, as a symbol of the city’s building frustration with continued government foot-dragging. Hedley had made many appearances in LegCo to explain the public health consequences of Hong Kong’s toxic air during his 25-year career in Hong Kong. Even Miriam Lau, the redoubtable mouthpiece of the transport sector supported the motion, while highlighting the need for higher per-vehicle subsidies for bus and truck owners. The fact that even Lau supported last night’s motion demonstrates the widespread, overwhelming support for air clean-up measures in our city.
Although last night’s motion is non-binding, meaning that Legislative Councillors cannot be expected to now rubber stamp the EPD’s toughest proposals, the passage of such a motion indicates majority support for more stringent, aggressive government action than what has been attempted to date.
For too long, the Environmental Protection Department has laid the blame at the doorstep of Legco: “We can’t get tougher legislation like increased registration fees for the most polluting vehicles passed because LegCo refuses to pass it.” After yesterday, the EPD can no longer hide behind LegCo’s apparent opposition to more effective environmental legislation. The executive branch no longer has any excuse or justification for its continued failure to introduce tougher initiatives.
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Motion to Improve Air Quality
That as air quality in Hong Kong is deteriorating by the day particularly regarding the emission of sulphur dioxide and fine suspended particulates, posing a serious threat to public health, and during the onslaught of ‘sandstorm’ earlier, many districts recorded an Air Pollution Index (‘API’) reading at the ‘severe’ level of 500; the ‘sandstorm’ has not only exposed the ‘belated awareness’ of the Administration, but also highlighted its shortcoming of lacking an early warning mechanism; quite a number of local and overseas studies have pointed out the close relationship between the severity of air pollution and the mortality rate; in this connection, this Council requests the Administration to make protection of public health its primary policy objective in tackling the problem of air pollution, and urges it to:
(a) immediately conduct a review on its sluggish response in this ‘sandstorm’ incident, and establish an early warning mechanism and warning signals, so as to enable members of the public to be aware of the warning messages about air quality as early as possible;
(b) in respect of the situations where API reaches ‘extremely severe’ and ‘severe’ levels, formulate specific guidelines, including implementation of measures to suspend schools and arrange for workers who need to work outdoors for long hours to suspend work, etc. so as to protect the health of school children and the underprivileged, such as people with chronic illness, the elderly and workers working outdoors, in situations where the pollution is serious;
(c) designate ‘low emission zones’ in areas with serious air pollution and restrict the entry of heavy diesel vehicles with high emissions into such zones, so as to improve air quality at the street level;
(d) provide funding support for the franchised bus companies to scrap and replace earlier their franchised buses with high emissions, such as buses which are Euro II or below, so as to improve roadside air quality;
(e) adopt the most stringent standards of the World Health Organization’s air quality guidelines as Hong Kong’s air quality objectives, and undertake to conduct review of the objectives once every three years in the future;
(f) improve the ‘To Replace Pre-Euro and Euro I Diesel Commercial Vehicles by New Commercial Vehicles – Incentive Scheme’ and the scheme for the replacement of Euro II diesel commercial vehicles mentioned in the Budget of this year, including allowing those vehicle owners who just write off their vehicles to receive subsidies under the schemes increasing the amount of the subsidies and offering other tax concessions, etc.;
(g) strengthen the co-operation and co-ordination with neighbouring regions on the improvement of air quality, including improving mutual notification and early warning mechanisms and through discussion gradually raise the air quality measurement objectives in Hong Kong and Guangdong Province, so as to achieve the target of meeting the ultimate air quality guidelines set by the World Health Organization;
(h) in areas other than the Kai Tak Development Area, widely promote the use of district cooling system to enhance energy efficiency and achieve emission reduction;
(i) improve town planning and urban design to improve air ventilation and reduce the accumulation of air pollutants in urban areas, such as expediting the review of the Outline Zoning Plans of various districts to revise the planning parameters, formulating ‘air ventilation objectives’, studying making ‘air ventilation assessment’ and ‘air ventilation guidelines’ statutory requirements, so as to strengthen the regulation of the impact of private developments on the surrounding environment” and
(j) in respect of the situations where API reaches the ‘severe’ level, establish an inter-departmental mechanism to co-ordinate the work of government departments responsible for health care and social welfare etc., so as to cope with the possible additional demand for medical consultation, emergency medical treatment and primary community services, etc.
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