If there is one thing that Honk chief executive Donald Tsang likes more than a massive infrastructure project
Short
it is a public consultation. Or a task force. Or a quango to examine proposals. Or an initiative. Or a public education campaign. In short, anything that resembles leadership or upsetting China or achieving anything.
In his annual policy address, he said that the environment was among the top three concerns of Hong Kong people (presumably along with Islamic finance and building a pointless bridge to Zhuhai). But how did he back up this? With some very warm words about low carbon, making the PRD a green area, and cleaning up the fuel mix of our coal-belching power stations.
All admirable, but what is most important to drive business and the government to achieve better environmental standards is air quality targets, which are now more than 20 years old, and are basically the equivalent of allowing a chain-smoking chimney to puff away in every room.
But Donald had something to say on this:
The Government is now reviewing the air quality objectives. To improve air quality in the long run, we will adopt targets in stages giving due regard to the World Health Organization’s guidelines.
On Thursday, green Donald lost his temper with a reporter, who politely asked when the air quality standards would be introduced and what was the delay (last year he said they would be introduced in 2008. still waiting)? He said ‘Look at my speech, you annoying scribbler.’ But re-reading this paragraph does not make it any clearer.
No timetable when they will be introduced, no hint at how the stages will be played out, and no idea if they will take any notice of the WHO standards, which are recommendations, lest we forget, to stop the poor air kill your citizens. In short (now don’t get paranoid Don), there is no meat in the bow-tie sandwich…
To be fair, there was some good stuff: plastic bag levy (if set high enough); money for energy efficient audits and changes; new building code and a move towards more natural gas. But, like much of the rest of the speech, it was tinkering, no real direction or sense that they wanted to make a real change.
Plus — and Don almost admitted this today when he told reporters that enforcement was the problem over the border not standards — he has his hands tied by Guangdong, that greenest-leaning of provinces. A report this week said targets would be missed for very low 2010 reductions… And unless that happens, then HK will continue to lose out on business talent and claims to be Asia’s world city remain preposterous…
