Legco Recap: The Sub-committee on Improving Air Quality meeting, 27 July, 2010
There are two main focuses in the meeting and some other minor discussion. The two major points are the new Air Pollution Index (API) and the new arrangement about the replacement of old buses.
The new API
The most important news from the meeting is that EPD and 3 universities were working together on research about new API, and there is hope that the new API will be formulated within this year. The new API will be use the Canadian system as a reference, which is a combination of health impacts and air pollutants.
The research is led by Professor Wong Tze Wai from Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Alexis K H Lau from HKUST is also assisting with the research. The research aims at comparing different API systems in different countries and seeks to choose the best one for Hong Kong. The professors believe that the Canadian system is the one most suited for Hong Kong, as the API there considers the relationship between hospital days and air pollution. It shows that the government pays attention to how air pollution affects people’s health.
Hopefully the research report will be finished within this year. Cyd Ho thinks that the EPD should show the report to the public, and the report should be comparable with the WHO guidelines. Also clear instructions should be made under different warnings, for example, the guideline to asking students to halt school activities or asking workers to stop outdoor work.
The SCR system on old buses
The second main focus of the meeting is about the replacement of old buses. The EPD suggested that it is not an easy task for the bus companies to replace all the dirty buses on the road. As there will only be 2,100 EURO II buses on the road (all pre-EURO and EURO I buses will be retired before 2015), the government suggested using PM filters and an SCR system in EURO II and EURO III buses instead of replacing them. The government suggested that an SCR system and PM filter can reduce the emission levels of EURO II buses to the level of EURO IV buses.
Experts in SCR technology will visit Hong Kong and conduct a meeting with officials in September 2010; they think that the trial for SCRs in buses can be started next year (2011).
Other measures
The third point is about a different environmental protection measure. Lau Kin Yee visited Jiangsu months ago and she was impressed by the green construction going on there. Many buildings in Jiangsu are facilitated with solar energy devices, even the street lamps. Lau suggested the government do the same in Hong Kong and introduce more green technology to the city.
Besides that, the amount of emissions from the electric power generation plants in Hong Kong is large. Therefore the councilor is concerned about fuel use in those plants. Carlson Chan stated that there is underutilization of natural gas electricity generators. This is because Hong Kong lacks a source of natural gas. However, the construction of channels of natural gas will be finished in 2013, and the channels can bring along the natural gas coming from Mainland China. It can increase the electricity generated by natural gas from 20% to 50%.
Electricity vehicles were also another point of discussion. The councilors questioned the passion and commitment of the government to promoting electricity vehicles/motorbikes. They urged the government to do more on that end.
Conclusion
We cannot comment on the new API at this moment, as we have no idea of how it is being calculated. However, we are looking forward to this index as it is related to health standard.
However we are not satisfied with the bus replacement measure. We think that SCR system is not good enough to reduce pollutants. According to bus manufacture, if the EURO II engine with additional device is as good as EURO IV engine, then it is meaningless to do research on a new engine. Therefore we still support the replacement of the old buses with EURO IV standard or even replacing the old buses with hybrid buses.
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