Shenzhen and Hong Kong show how intercity alliances can tackle pollution

Michelle Wong highlights how Shenzhen and Hong Kong are working together in an effort to reduce ship emissions, one of the nagging sources of poor air quality in the Greater Bay Area

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A view of Victoria Harbour from Central as air pollution blankets multiple areas of Hong Kong in mid-January, on a day when 14 of the 16 air quality monitoring stations showed a “high” to “very high” health risk in the early afternoon. Photo: Winson Wong

Published: 1:01pm, 11 Feb 2018Updated: 8:45pm, 11 Feb 2018

Air quality is a hot topic of discussion among global leaders as a threat to quality of life, including in Hong Kong. While the effects of air pollution may not be immediately visible, the long-term public health concerns and fatalities associated with poor air quality are alarming.

Then again, they bring into focus the efforts currently in place to manage the problem, and the potential to share these efforts across the Greater Bay Area, in light of President Xi Jinping’s national strategy on “ecological civilisation”.

Is controlling air quality even possible? This is a valid question in the context of linked cities that can potentially give rise to more urban economic hubs in the region. Yet, this is a question Hong Kong has long answered with a rather optimistic “yes”.

Let’s take a look at what Hong Kong has been doing so far to address the problem. Over the years, the government has looked at the amount of ambient concentrations in the air to gauge its air control solutions, extending financial support to curb emission sources on both land and at sea.

To address vehicle emissions, it has subsidised a replacement scheme for pre-Euro 4 diesel commercial vehicles, the replacement of filters for taxis and LPG-powered public light buses, as well as the retrofitting of franchised buses’ selective catalytic reduction devices, among others.

As a result, overall emissions and ambient concentrations of assorted signature pollutants have been markedly reduced, especially in the past few years – except for nitrogen dioxide, whose latest annual average concentrations continue to exceed the World Health Organisation’s Air Quality Guidelines. The identified culprit? Ship emissions, which contributed 37 per cent of nitrogen oxide emissions among local air pollution emission sources in Hong Kong in 2015.

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