The official vision here and in Beijing is to turn Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta into a 'green, quality living area with cleaner air, less pollution and a lower-carbon environment'. But is that sufficiently appealing?
A key part of this transformation, in the government's proposed climate change plan, has to do with the energy sector. This plan will probably be the key driver of Hong Kong's environmental upgrade in the coming decade.
The government has accepted that, as the richest and most advance part of China, it has the responsibility to do better than the national target to reduce carbon intensity. Thus, the Hong Kong government proposes a reduction target of 50-60 per cent by 2020 compared to 2005 - against the national target of 40-45 per cent. For Hong Kong, this is of course not the same as an absolute emissions cut, but it's a start.
The bulk of the reductions will come from switching away from coal. By reducing coal-burning from 54 per cent to 10 per cent and increasing natural gas from 23 per cent to about 40 per cent, the city's fuel mix will change dramatically. Half of Hong Kong's electricity will come from nuclear power.
While reducing coal burning has general support, switching to nuclear power is controversial for green groups, who argue instead for renewable power such as wind and solar. Yet the constraint for this region is its modest endowment in renewable resources, according to the most authoritative research done by scientists at the University of Science and Technology. If we are to reduce emissions significantly within 10 years, it seems renewable power won't be a big help.
China has a dozen nuclear reactors in operation and 24 under construction, and it decided this year to expand its nuclear capacity further by 2020. As a result, Hong Kong has the opportunity to buy more nuclear power from across the border, which is critical to the government's proposed plan.