Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa's administration has received a fail mark for its environmental performance in the past five years in an evaluation by the Conservancy Association released yesterday.
The non-governmental organisation gave Mr Tung an average score of 4.98 out of 10 on his work in environmental protection during his first term of office. Of 51 promises the Chief Executive made in policy addresses on the issue since 1997, 24 have not been met and seven delayed, the association claimed.
Dr Gordon Ng Ting-leung, chief executive of the group, said there was much hope when Mr Tung pledged to formulate a comprehensive conservation policy in his 1999 address but there had yet to be any movement on that issue.
'Instead, with the new accountability system, conservation has seen a further setback,' Dr Ng said.
'For example, putting waste collection under the Health and Welfare Bureau but conservation under the Environment Bureau will lead to fragmentation - the waste collectors will only focus on how best to collect rather than reduce the waste.'
There was yet to be any discussion of a new White Paper on the Environment to replace the 10-year White Paper on Pollution that covered the decade up 1999, he added.
