Annelise’s point of view is certainly understandable (and, indeed, commendable). Indeed, her editorial presents a timely opportunity to clarify CAN’s position on the anti-idling bill.
Of course, CAN supports the idling bill. In fact, CAN is one of the EPD’s first allies when it comes to rallying public support and media attention in favor of the bill. Only last week, for example, we accompanied Edward Yau on his tour around Hong Kong to experience taxi and bus drivers’ queuing without the benefit of air conditioning. Moreover, we issued a joint press release with Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth on that day highlighting the dangers to pedestrians and outdoor workers of roadside emissions. And, as you know, we requested prominent organizations and schools to make deputations in LegCo to support of the bill.
The main point of my editorial piece was to decry the hysteria and massive waste of political capital surrounding the efforts to both win and defeat the bill. The fact is, even if the bill passed without exemptions today, the old, very polluting state of our commercial diesel fleet would make any improvements in roadside emissions de minimis. We have far too many old, filthy vehicles on the road. Idling or not, they are a huge problem. Every minute that a pre-Euro vehicle is running on the road, it is polluting the air 34 more times than a Euro V vehicle.
That is not to say, of course, that the anti-idling bill is unimportant. Rather, the anti-idling bill simply needs to be considered for what it is: first and foremost, it is a crucial step to changing attitudes in society at large towards air pollution. (It goes without saying that, in our crusade for clean air, our primary interest is protecting pedestrians and outdoor workers from roadside emissions always.)
That said, I do want to say how grateful CAN is to organizations and individuals, especially schools and medical associations, who have spoken out in support of the anti-idling ordinance. Their vocal and conspicuous support has been indispensable to raising the profile of the issue among the general public and heartening others to express their support of clean air publicly.
