The Hong Kong government will set up a new task force to explore opportunities in green hydrogen to achieve “deeper decarbonisation”, environment minister Wong Kam-sing said. This includes learning from the experience of the Greater Bay Area city of Foshan, home to some 448 zero-emission delivery trucks and 1,000 green buses powered by hydrogen – the most in China. The city is also a hub for hydrogen supply chain development. “We have to keep in touch with them to see how this application can be launched,” he told the SCMP Conversations: Sustainability webinar on Thursday. “We have a particular task force under the EV [electric vehicle] road map and also for our upcoming Climate Action Plan involving colleagues from different bureaus. We will work together on how we can ride on the [energy] transformation involving hydrogen vehicles.” Currently, hydrogen is primarily produced from fossil fuel in mainland China, since green hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water using renewable energy like wind and solar power is expensive and needs to be scaled-up for costs to come down. Distribution infrastructure also needs to be built for mass adoption. Still, green hydrogen is a key long-term solution for Hong Kong to achieve net-zero carbon dioxide emission before 2050, a goal announced by Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in November. This is because hydrogen can be used at power plants to replace natural gas – a transitory alternative to coal with half the carbon intensity – to achieve zero emission electricity generation. It is also a promising alternative to fossil fuel for transport. Electricity production accounts for around 70 per cent of Hong Kong’s carbon emissions, which have fallen around 10 per cent from their peak in 2014, thanks to gradual replacement of coal by natural gas. Transport contributes around a quarter of the city’s carbon emissions. The government will update its four-year-old Climate Action Plan this year, to map out a path for Hong Kong to achieve carbon neutrality and become more adaptive and resilient to climate change, Wong said. The solutions must balance energy security, environmental impact and affordability considerations, he added. The previous plan targeted for the city’s carbon emissions to fall by 65 to 70 per cent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels. In March, Wong unveiled Hong Kong’s first road map to encourage EVs , under which no new registration of fossil fuel-propelled private cars including hybrids will be allowed by 2035. A time-table will also be set by 2025 for the adoption of electric for public transport and commercial vehicles. Besides running trials on electric buses, taxis and lorries, e-ferries will also be tested by 2023. “There will be a number of e-ferries travelling in the Victoria Harbour, the scale of the pilot will be one of the largest in the world,” he said. Meanwhile, energy conservation in buildings where 90 per cent of the city’s electricity is consumed, will also be encouraged by the government, he added. Olivier Blum, chief strategy and sustainability officer of France-based multinational sustainable energy and automation solutions provider Schneider Electric, said existing technology – including digital tools – can reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions in buildings by at least 30 per cent. But continuous technological advancements mean companies should aim higher and think longer term on what could be achieved on retrofitting and project upgrades, he said. “Sustainability is like running a marathon without the finishing line … it is about always pushing the limit,” Blum said.