Expert calls for super bureau on climate
A powerful organisation led by a top official should be formed to take the lead in formulating climate change policy and enforcing emission cuts, green activists say.
Liam Salter, climate change specialist with the WWF, told the Legislative Council's environmental affairs panel that such an organisation should be set up within the government.
He said the structural change was needed to bridge the 'big gap' between Hong Kong and the mainland in tackling the issue, and the city was far behind in setting targets for energy efficiency.
His call was echoed by the Civic Party which said the chief secretary should lead a group that could look at policy issues relating to ecology, infrastructure and economy.
'It is impossible for a single bureau to take care of all this,' said Christine Hung, a spokeswoman for the party's air quality group.
Civic Exchange chief executive Christine Loh Kung-wai said the policy bureau reorganisation might provide a significant opportunity to consider climate change policy and that an energy bureau could do the job.
Friends of the Earth's Hahn Chu Hon-keung told the panel that officials should not just rely on voluntary measures to cut emissions. To get the message across, Mr Chu said officials should focus on the impact on local economies rather than the abstract idea of rising global sea levels.
To cut the city's carbon footprint, Greenpeace proposed that energy-inefficient light bulbs be banned while Green Sense called for the regulation of outdoor lighting.
Carlson Chan Ka-shun, deputy director of environmental protection, said the city was tackling climate change. He said it accounted for 0.02 per cent of the global greenhouse gas emissions and its carbon intensity - the ratio of carbon emissions to economic activity - had dropped by 41 per cent in 2005 compared with 1990.
The department would carry out more studies this year to provide the city with an update on climate change mitigation measures, he said.
