CAN joined hands with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth to show support for the anti-idling bill on Monday

On Monday, CAN showed up with fellow environmental groups to give support to Secretary of the Environment, Edward Yau, during his visits to taxi and bus queues throughout Hong Kong. Under pressure from taxi drivers and bus companies, Yau made appearances in Central, Mongkok, Causeway Bay, Hung Hom and Lam Tin to experience first-hand the “plight” of professional drivers forced to shut off their engines during hot weather. In anticipation of protests from professional drivers at these locations, the EPD canvassed the concerned locations beforehand to ask shop owners and residents along the polluted streets to express their support for the anti-idling bill to the media during Yau’s visit. These voices provided an important counterpoint to the opposition of the transport industry in the resulting media coverage. We hope that more balanced coverage by the media signals a turning point for the bill, which enjoys widespread support among a majority of Hong Kongers.

 

CAN and other environmental groups accept that the idling bill must contain some exemptions if it is to be a humane bill. But these exemptions render the bill far from perfect, throwing into starker and more urgent focus the need to clean-up roadside emissions from the dirtiest sources — Hong Kong’s commercial diesel vehicles. Read the SCMP’s coverage of Monday’s events here (subscription-only).