Consumer rethink urged to save environment
CONSUMERS will have to rethink their buying habits and cut down on purchases if global environmental problems are to be solved, a visiting UK expert warned yesterday.
The heavy dependence on electrical appliances and other goods in developed places such as Hongkong, and the increasing ability in less-developed places such as China to own such items, created burdens on energy output which added to global warming, Mr John Winward claimed.
A refrigerator in every home in China, for instance, would require a vast amount of electricity provided mostly by coal, one of the main causes of global warming, he said.
Mr Winward is research director of the Consumers' Association in Britain. He is in Hongkong to give a public lecture on green consumerism on Wednesday.
''The world population is expanding and perhaps will double in the next century,'' he said.
''It seems inconceivable that the kind of material consumption we've started to take for granted in the West can be replicated around the world.'' But the issues of who should make the sacrifices - whether China should give up its goal of a refrigerator for every household or the United States should phase out private cars - were controversial, and debate was needed.
''It's easier to sell the idea of environmental improvement to people already well off,'' Mr Winward said.
The development of less-polluting products, which were becoming increasingly popular with consumers, only partially helped and could not offset huge demand.
Mr Winward said there were limitations to green consumerism and it tended to concentrate on the things that were easiest to do.
''Consumers are most willing to make some sort of environmental change if it means minimal disruption to their normal shopping,'' he said.
Mr Winward claimed Hongkong consumers were about five years behind those in Britain in terms of demanding goods that did not harm the environment.
But they appeared to be on the threshold of a transition period, when awareness of environmental problems tended to be translated into greener purchasing patterns, such as energy-efficient appliances.
Mr Winward will give his lecture at the Academy for the Performing Arts, followed by an open discussion with a panel including legislator Ms Christine Loh and the chairwoman of the Consumer Council's research and testing committee, Dr Sarah Liao.
