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Hong Kong has published a new blueprint for tackling air pollution. Photo: May Tse

Hong Kong sets new goal to reach Tokyo, Paris levels of clean air by 2035, vows to comply with WHO standards over long term

  • City must seek to emulate results of higher-performing global cities when tackling air pollution, environment minister says
  • Officials publish Hong Kong’s first clean air blueprint since 2013, addressing areas such as transport, energy and collaboration with neighbouring cities

Key points in measures to achieve air quality targets:

• Promote new energy vehicles such as electric cars and ferries, as well as expand rail network

• Increase clean energy and study alternatives such as hydrogen, while tightening emissions caps for power plants

• Study long-term health impacts of air pollution

• Adopt new technology to monitor air quality, such as microsensors on lamp posts

• Monitor and study VOC (volatile organic compounds) and ozone formation through regional cooperation

Hong Kong has set itself a new target to reach the same standards of air quality as major international cities such as Tokyo and Paris by 2035.

However, the Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035 released on Tuesday stopped short of setting a timeline to achieve full compliance with World Health Organization standards in this area over the long term, with activists branding the proposal a “bad cheque”.

Hong Kong to target lower emissions from 2026 in bid to improve air quality

Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing said Hong Kong’s air quality had improved since the publication of the last plan in 2013, with pollutant levels overall falling up to 50 per cent, while visibility increased 40 per cent over the past five years.

“There will be three challenges on the way: reducing nitrogen oxide emissions on the roadside, marine emissions and ozone levels,” Wong added.

The Clean Air Plan from eight years ago set targets to reduce pollution by 2020, focusing on tackling emissions from vehicles, vessels and power plants.

That HK$11.7 billion plan has largely managed to bring down the concentration of major pollutants including sulphur dioxide and fine particulates such as PM2.5 and PM10.

The latest blueprint highlights six action areas to help achieve the overarching targets, including green transport, clean energy, scientific management on air quality monitoring systems and collaboration within the Greater Bay Area.

The latter refers especially to the monitoring of ozone levels, seen as the greatest problem associated with Hong Kong air quality and a persistent pollutant that has vexed policymakers and scientists alike due to the complicated nature of its formation.

It is formed when nitrogen oxides emitted from sources like fuel vehicles mix with volatile organic compounds (VOC) from sources such as paint and react with sunlight.

The concentration of ozone has nearly doubled in the past two decades, and the Hong Kong government announced last year it would be undertaking a three-year study to understand how ozone forms and spreads across the Greater Bay Area – including Hong Kong, Macau and Guangdong province.

Officials sidestepped questions on when they expected Hong Kong to be able to reach the WHO’s air quality guidelines, which were put in place in 2005 and set standards for the maximum allowable concentrations of major pollutants for the short and long term.

“As you know, there are 12 air quality objectives under the index, at this moment we have set six of them on par with the [WHO] targets,” said Owin Fung Ho-yin, a deputy director of environmental protection. “Other than ozone, we’ll probably have very good progress with regards to PM2.5 and PM10 within the next 10 to 15 years.”

Environment minister Wong Kam-sing. Photo: Edmond So

At the moment, Hong Kong’s own air quality objectives [AQOs] for PM2.5, PM10 and sulphur dioxide are still set at the WHO’s second interim target. The ultimate WHO targets can be achieved through four phases.

The current AQOs will take effect in 2022, with Hong Kong likely to achieve the goals in 2025.

Fung admitted the city was also likely to need to review the six action areas when it undertook a review of the AQOs in five years.

Meanwhile, Tse Chin-wan, the environment undersecretary, specified Tokyo and Paris as examples of the modern cities that Hong Kong was seeking to emulate when tackling air pollution.

“Currently, we are comparable to Asian cities such as Taipei and Singapore. But we still have a lot to catch up with Tokyo and Paris, which are much better than us.”

However, Patrick Fung Kin-wah, CEO of green group Clean Air Network, said the two cities specified by Tse were still on the lower end of the scale in terms of air quality among other major metropolises.

“PM2.5 concentration in other cities such as New York, Melbourne and London are between 40 and 80 per cent lower than in Hong Kong,” Fung said.

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Fung’s group also said green transport measures set out in the Clean Air Plan had simply reiterated a previous road map to popularise electric cars in the city, and urged the government to set a more ambitious target to phase out all fuel vehicles including commercial ones by 2040.

Clean Air Network also said the government should aim to be comparable with other international cities by 2030, and achieve the WHO standards by 2035.

The Green Earth, another local environmental group, called the plan a “bad cheque” as it did not have a concrete timeline to match the WHO air quality guidelines.

Professor Steve Yim Hung-lam of Chinese University urged the government to ensure it tackled air pollution as a whole, rather than only targeting individual pollutants.

“If we only target one pollutant, there will be side effects, so, for example, to tackle ozone, we would need to reduce both nitrogen oxides and VOCs,” the air pollution expert said.

Additional reporting by Sammy Heung and Mimosa Ngai

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: goal to reach Tokyo, Paris levels of clean air by 2035
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