Green groups and an academic yesterday attacked the government's feasibility study on climate change, saying measures proposed to cut carbon emissions including the import of nuclear power were not scientifically sound.
They also urged the Environment Bureau to explain why the projected growth of energy consumption by 2020 was six times the growth of the past 10 years.
The bureau launched a public consultation in September on the government's target to cut carbon intensity by 50 to 60 per cent by 2020 from the 2005 level. A set of proposed measures to achieve the target were included in the paper, including increasing nuclear power from 23 per cent of the total to 50 per cent.
But a full report - close to 500 pages - demonstrating why such measures should be adopted was only released early this month after pressure from green groups, which said the public were not fully informed of the government's decision-making process. The bureau then promised to extend the public consultation to January 10.
But the latest disclosure led to further controversy. Invited by green groups to analyse the full report, an academic specialising in energy and environment at City University said the government's study was scientifically unsound. His views were expressed at a press conference held by WWF, Friends of the Earth and Greenpeace yesterday.
'The report wouldn't get a pass if it was a thesis of my students,' associate professor William Chung Siu-wai said. He said the measures recommended by the government's consultant were not tested with the internationally recognised model and as a result they were not proved to be feasible.