The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Workshop on Energy Intensity Reduction in the APEC Regions' Urbanised Cities was held in Hong Kong via video conferencing today (March 23).
      
     Delivering the opening remarks this morning, the Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, said that, taking into account views collected from a territory-wide public engagement on Hong Kong's long-term decarbonisation strategy, the Chief Executive announced in her Policy Address last year that Hong Kong would strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, and that the Government would examine various means to reduce carbon emissions. He added that Hong Kong was honoured to host the online workshop, which was part of the city's first-ever APEC-funded project. The workshop allowed APEC economies to share their experiences in reducing energy intensity and the emerging technologies that can help accelerate APEC's regional goal to reduce energy intensity by at least 45 per cent by 2035.
 
     More than 100 experts and delegates from 12 APEC member economies attended the workshop to exchange views on energy efficiency and conservation policies, regulations, implementation and innovative technologies in the region. The workshop was part of the APEC-funded project proposed by Hong Kong. The project aims to analyse the outstanding performance of seven APEC members' cities in reducing energy intensity, and identify key drivers for enhancing building energy efficiency which can help accelerate aggregated energy intensity reduction in APEC economies.
 
     In his closing remarks, the Director of Electrical and Mechanical Services, Mr Pang Yiu-hung, said that the workshop provided an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge among member economies and enhanced their capacity in energy intensity reduction. He emphasised that Hong Kong has continued to play an active role in the collective effort to promote energy efficiency and new technologies to achieve APEC's energy intensity reduction goal.

Ends/Tuesday, March 23, 2021
Issued at HKT 16:56

NNNN