Letters | Hong Kong needs to play catch up with Shenzhen on green GDP accounting
- Hong Kong adopted a Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan in 2016
- Yet, be it adopting e-vehicles or replacing fossil fuel-based power, the city seems to have fallen behind neighbouring Shenzhen
In competing with increasing efficiency to exploit natural capital and convert it into produced capital (goods and services), mankind now has to rapidly reverse course or face catastrophe. In early 2019, the British Treasury commissioned Professor Sir Partha Dasgupta of Cambridge University to carry out a comprehensive global review of the economics of biodiversity. Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the recent publication of the review couldn’t have been more timely.
With the UN Biodiversity Conference rescheduled for later this year in Kunming, the report assumes greater significance. What ecologists have been saying since the 1970s has finally found a willing ear among economists.
Hong Kong was in a great position to change track and adopt green GDP accounting ahead of any other city or country. It has much to boast about in terms of its stock of natural capital: hills, vegetation, water bodies, well-maintained country parks. The efficiency of the Hong Kong lifestyle in terms of the compact urban design and excellent public transport could give the city a high score in this new metric.
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One million plants and animals on brink of extinction, threatening economies and livelihoods across the world
Hong Kong adopted a Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan way back in 2016. Yet, on multiple fronts, be it the adoption of electric vehicles that would go a long way towards cleaning the air, replacing fossil fuel-based power, or reducing municipal solid waste, Hong Kong seems to have fallen behind, especially when compared to its neighbour on the mainland, Shenzhen.