Exclusive | Breathe easier, Hong Kong is on course to hit global air pollution target

Cleaner shipping fuel and a campaign to phase out dirty old vehicles are two of the reasons for the improvement, but more still needs to be done

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Choking air hangs over the Central waterfront earlier this month – yet pollutant levels have dropped in recent years. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Published: 8:00am, 17 May 2017Updated: 4:07pm, 23 Oct 2019

A report on Hong Kong’s efforts to improve air quality is expected to show “significant progress” towards hitting international targets in cutting pollutants over the past 4½ years and by 2020, the city’s No 2 environment official says.

Annual average concentrations of PM10 – specks of respirable particulates smaller than 10 microns that can enter deep into the lungs – dropped from around 53 micrograms per cubic metre in roadside readings in 2012 to under 40mcg last year.

Roadside levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) fell from 120mcg to 80mcg.

Environment official Christine Loh: “The things we have set out to do, we have done them all.” Photo: Jonathan Wong

The report assessing the Clean Air Plan, laid out in 2013, projects a drop in PM10 to around 30mcg by 2020, the third of three interim targets for the pollutant set by the World Health Organisation, but still a notch above the ultimate level of 20mcg.

NO2 is forecast to drop to about 65mcg. The WHO’s only standard for NO2 is 40mcg. Projections for other pollutants such as PM2.5 will be known when the report is published in a few weeks.

“There has been a significant impact on the air quality of Hong Kong in terms of [bad air] days and reduction of pollutants,” environment undersecretary Christine Loh Kung-wai told the Post. “The things we have set out to do, we have done them all.”

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.css-sioo19{color:#c79a00;}Exclusive | Breathe easier, Hong Kong is on course to hit global air pollution target

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Cleaner shipping fuel and a campaign to phase out dirty old vehicles are two of the reasons for the improvement, but more still needs to be done

Exclusive | Breathe easier, Hong Kong is on course to hit global air pollution target

Cleaner shipping fuel and a campaign to phase out dirty old vehicles are two of the reasons for the improvement, but more still needs to be done