Speech by SEN at Walk21 Hong Kong Conference (English only)
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Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning. I am very pleased to join this very meaningful and timely event. Today is the fourth day of the event. It is highly supported by the Government. I understand that Mrs Carrie Lam, the Chief Secretary for Administration, and also Professor Anthony Cheung, the Secretary for Transport and Housing, shared their views about this topic on an earlier day. So I am the third minister to join this event. I understand that today, the Under Secretaries for Development, Transport and Housing, and the Environment, will also join the event to share what we are going to do. You can see that the Government is very keen about this topic.
Today's particular theme is about climate change and low carbon development, and so is close to my portfolio as my subjects cover climate change, air quality and related issues. Before I share with you what we are going to do about this topic under my office, I would like to share with you something more personal. I am a passionate walker. When I was younger, I lived in a public housing estate on Kowloon side. It was a 20-storey building. My home was located at the second topmost level. I always walked up and down to the ground level because the staircase was a kind of naturally ventilated design. At that time, the elevators were not as speedy as today's. So I tried to compete with the speed of the elevators, and I always won. And my home was located about 10 minutes away from the transit station or MTR station. Similar to many places in Hong Kong, there were minibuses or public light buses linking between the station and the estate. Again, for economic reason at that time, I always walked to the station instead of taking the minibus. Certainly from today's perspective, walking can offer economic, social and environmental benefits. Even today, I still walk a lot in the office. My office occupies more than a storey and I walk up and down to minimise the use of energy due to elevators. During lunch time, from my office I walk to Wan Chai, Admiralty and Central as long as the weather and other conditions permit. During weekends, I walk again because, as a friend said at the Civic Exchange, Hong Kong's country parks are in the proximity of the urban areas. Many of the country parks can be walked to directly from the urban areas or directly from the MTR stations. So, that is the background that I would like to share with you. This kind of urban fabric and lifestyle offers a low carbon option for many people in Hong Kong, not only for me but also for other people.
Certainly there is room for improvement. It represents that Hong Kong is a unique place, not only a two-dimensional but a three-dimensional walkable town. Hong Kong is so dense with high-rise buildings, not only with external environments for walking but also within buildings. People can walk within the buildings or between buildings at least for an hour or hours. When we consider walkability, it is not only about individual buildings but also the total three-dimensional urban design application in Hong Kong. That's not only for Hong Kong but also, similarly, for many other cities and countries in Asia.
Back to the policy areas, I would like to summarise three key points under A, B and C, as walking is something basic. "A" stands for "adaptation to climate change" and also "air quality". When we talk about climate change, besides low carbon development under the climate challenge, how to address other issues in relation to climate change is equally important. For instance, there is extreme weather including more intensive, more frequent heat waves, heavy rainfall and so on affecting cities like Hong Kong. After the Paris conference held late last year, the Government formulated a high-level steering committee (the Steering Committee on Climate Change) chaired by Mrs Carrie Lam, the Chief Secretary for Administration, together with all the policy secretaries, including all the bureaux and relevant departments to formulate a more aggressive climate action plan for Hong Kong, covering mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Why I highlight the adaptation aspect is because for walkers, we prefer to have more comfortable outdoor environment preferably with a breeze and shade and with better air quality, so that we can enjoy the outdoor environment for walking. Hong Kong is suffering from the impact of climate change. Similar to other cities, Hong Kong has become hotter, particularly with longer summers. Also due to the compact urban form in Hong Kong, the level of breeze has been decreasing over time. How to maintain and even enhance the micro-climate in Hong Kong for favouring walking is a challenge. Under the Steering Committee, we are formulating the action plan as one of the aspects to make Hong Kong climate-smart and climate-adaptive, coupled with other air quality improvement measures, so that we can maintain Hong Kong's outdoor environment to be walkable. Let's highlight a few examples. In our new development areas, we integrate the so-called urban climatic map, that is a kind of scientific methodology tailor-made for Hong Kong's particular climate and urban fabric, so that we can plan appropriately to integrate the breezeway, greenery and other aspects for maintaining Hong Kong's outdoor environment to be walkable and liveable.
On top of that, we integrate other infrastructure and facilities. For instance, in the Kai Tak area, we are integrating the first of its kind - the District Cooling System - in Hong Kong. It's a kind of energy-efficient, low carbon infrastructure that capitalises on the availability of sea water for cooling. The centralised District Cooling System can provide not only highly efficient energy for cooling individual buildings but also help get rid of the individual chillers usually located on top of individual buildings. It can help reduce the urban heat island effect in Hong Kong. At the same time, it enables individual buildings to have free roofs for integrating renewable energy, more greenery and public space use. So, there are win-win situations through engaging and using appropriate technologies in the case of Hong Kong.
At the same time, we would like to improve the air quality in Hong Kong for obvious reasons, as said by my colleagues and different speakers. Over the past few years, the major air pollutants in Hong Kong have been reduced by 20 to 30 per cent and it will become even healthier and better in the coming years through various measures. One of the highlighted measures is to phase out the old diesel commercial vehicles - probably the biggest of its kind in the world. We are phasing out more than 80,000 old diesel commercial vehicles in a few years and within around two years, more than half of them have been phased out. We thus have better air quality along the roads and also in general.
The second point, "B", is about "building green". As I said earlier, Hong Kong is a three-dimensional city. When we are talking about walkability, it is not only about along the streets and piazzas but also within and between buildings. How to make the buildings around equally enjoyable for walking is something that we would like to promote. Green buildings are a very important subject in Hong Kong. We have a green building assessment system called BEAM Plus now covering new buildings, existing buildings and also being extended to green neighbourhoods. When we talk about building projects and also planning, we would like to have a kind of objective system to promote various low carbon, energy efficient, and also liveable design. For instance, Hong Kong has probably the highest number of elevators and escalators installed per unit area. Those are important elements as part of the walkable city, so that we have regulations with other initiatives to ensure all these are energy efficient and climate smart.
Thirdly, "C" is for "carbon reduction", the theme of today. Under the climate change challenge, we are glad to see the Paris Agreement setting very aggressive targets to cap the temperature rise globally to not more than 2 degrees Celsius by the middle of this century, preferably about 1.5 degrees. All places are trying to achieve this including Hong Kong, and we have the Steering Committee formed to address these mitigation, adaptation and resilience challenges.
In Hong Kong, the carbon footprint per person is not high when compared with other cities. On average, the carbon footprint is about six tonnes per person per year. We now have a 2020 target, that means in the coming four years, on average, Hong Kong’s per capita carbon footprint will be reduced to around five. Then we are going to announce our 2030 long-term target later this year or early next year. To reduce our carbon footprint is very important, so we have to look at what are our major carbon emissions in Hong Kong. Basically there are a few major sources. Firstly it’s about power plants and buildings. They account for about 60 per cent of Hong Kong's carbon footprint. How about road transport? Seventeen per cent. And the rest is about waste and others. So we are having the Steering Committee looking integratedly together with other departments, and with the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Development Bureau. We can have an integrated approach from planning to transport to further reduce our carbon footprint, including adaptation to climate change. Walkability is important, for not only reducing our carbon footprint but also making our city healthier and more liveable.
I would like to conclude that we are taking an integrated approach. It is very important to see things in a holistic way, so that we can see means of an effective way to address the target and also capture various co-benefits, from reducing our carbon footprint to making our city more liveable, healthier and more vibrant. As I said, later today, three Under Secretaries, representing the Development Bureau, the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Environment Bureau, will sit together to show how we are working together. I would like to conclude here, and welcome you to the event again. To Hong Kong, the event is very timely and important, and is supported by the Government. Through working together in a collaborative way, we can make Hong Kong and other cities more liveable and low carbon. We can address climate change together.
Thank you.
Ends/Thursday, October 6, 2016
Issued at HKT 16:59
Issued at HKT 16:59
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