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Following is a question by the Hon Emily Lau and a written reply by the Acting Secretary for the Environment, Ms Christine Loh, in the Legislative Council today (June 10):
Question:
The Government formulated a set of guidelines in April 2009 to encourage various policy bureaux and government departments to carry out regular carbon emission audits for government buildings with construction floor areas exceeding 10 000 square metres. Moreover, the authorities launched in September 2012 a three-year programme to conduct energy-cum-carbon audits for government buildings and public facilities. Regarding the promotion of carbon emission audits and reduction of carbon emissions by buildings, will the Executive Authorities inform this Council:
(1) of the respective performance, in terms of (i) total carbon emissions and (ii) electricity consumption, of each policy bureau and government department participating in the energy-cum-carbon audits in each of the past three years;
(2) given that the target of the aforesaid three-year programme is to conduct energy-cum-carbon audits for 120 government buildings and public facilities, but only half of the target was met as at March this year, whether they have assessed if the target can be achieved on schedule; and
(3) of the measures, apart from the launching of the "Green Hong Kong?Carbon Audit" campaign in 2008 and the enactment of relevant statutory requirements such as the Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance (Cap 610), the authorities have in place to motivate owners of private buildings to conduct carbon emission audits and implement energy saving measures for their buildings?
Reply:
President,
(1) and (2) To enable all sectors of the community to better understand energy consumption and carbon emissions of their buildings, and to identify room for carbon reduction and implementation of carbon reduction measures for achieving energy saving and greenhouse gas reduction, the Government rolled out a three-year programme to conduct energy-cum-carbon audits for 120 government buildings and public facilities in September 2012. We completed the audits for 58 government buildings and public facilities last year, including public markets, public swimming pools, indoor sports centres, secondary schools, etc.; while the audit work for the remaining 62 government buildings and public facilities (including office buildings, healthcare facilities, community halls, markets, etc.) will be completed soon. We expect that the three-year programme will be successfully completed by 2015 as scheduled.
According to the completed audits, the average sectorial energy utilisation index (EUI) and carbon emissions of the related government buildings and public facilities are listed in Annex.
(3) The Government has been encouraging the private sector to participate in energy and carbon reduction initiatives. Apart from launching the "Green Hong Kong?Carbon Audit" activity in 2008, we have published technical guidelines for conducting carbon audits and have provided through the Environment and Conservation Fund $10 million's funding support to a CarbonSmart Programme, which provides a matching fund of up to $30,000 each to about 360 private enterprises for conducting carbon audits. The Government launched a carbon footprint repository in December 2014 to facilitate disclosure by listed companies of their carbon audit findings, and sharing of their carbon management experience and practices. So far, a total of 66 listed companies have disclosed their carbon audit findings through the carbon footprint repository. The Government will continue to encourage private organisations to conduct carbon audits and to take carbon reduction action.
In Hong Kong, more than half of our total annual energy use is in the form of electricity consumption, with buildings accounting for about 90 per cent of the city's electricity bill. As such, the Government attaches great importance to enhancing building energy saving.
In 2012, the Government fully implemented the Buildings Energy Efficiency Ordinance, which mandates compliance with the minimum energy efficiency standards for the key building services installations of newly constructed buildings and existing buildings which undergo major retrofitting works. The Ordinance also requires commercial buildings to carry out energy audits once every ten years. To identify energy management opportunities, these buildings have to check the energy consumption equipment of their central building services installations, and to evaluate the operation characteristics and controlling parameters during an audit. For new buildings, it is estimated that the implementation of the Ordinance will result in an energy saving of 2.8 billion kWh in the first decade, or a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of about 2 million tonnes.
To promote energy saving across the community, the Government has since 2012 launched annually an Energy Saving Charter on Indoor Temperature to reduce electricity consumption on air-conditioning. Participation increased from about 100 shopping malls signing up for the charter in 2012 to nearly 2 100 signatories in 2014, including shopping malls, shops, office buildings, offices and more than 200 housing estates and residential buildings. As of mid-2015, about 2 900 participants (including shops, shopping malls, residential buildings and representatives of Management of organisations) have signed up for the charter, among which there are some 300 properties under various non-governmental organisations. The number of participants in the charter has increased nearly 40 per cent when compared to that of last year.
To encourage the public to take concrete steps to enhance building energy efficiency, the Government introduced Buildings Energy Efficiency Funding Schemes (with a funding of $450 million) in April 2009 to subsidise buildings to conduct energy-cum-carbon audits and energy efficiency projects for the communal facilities of their buildings. The three-year funding schemes were completed in 2012 as scheduled. Over 6 400 buildings, or more than one-seventh of the total building stock in Hong Kong, have received subsidies under the Schemes. Meanwhile, the two power companies launched in June 2014 two energy efficiency funds totalling $100 million, namely CLP Eco Building Fund and HKE Smart Power Fund. Both schemes aim to help owners of residential buildings to implement energy saving projects for the communal areas of their buildings by providing subsidies on a matching basis.
The Government will continue its efforts to promote energy conservation. We unveiled Hong Kong's first Energy Saving Plan for Hong Kong's Built Environment 2015~2025+ in May this year to encourage the public to save energy together. We will set up a dialogue platform with related stakeholders to discuss how to strengthen the local energy efficiency and green building market, and to enhance the competence of the relevant professional sectors to provide energy saving services, with a view to achieving the new target of reducing Hong Kong's energy intensity by 40 per cent by 2025.
Ends/Wednesday, June 10, 2015
Issued at HKT 17:02
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