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Climate change
Hong KongHealth & Environment

Climate change: Hong Kong’s knowledge of flood management, landslide prevention can benefit Asia-Pacific region, experts say

  • City has role to play as region grapples with severe storms, flooding, environmentalist says
  • Global carbon trading market will also be an opportunity for city to utilise its financial hub expertise

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Under a hill in Hong Kong where a landslide killed 67 people in 1972, an intricate network of pipes and tunnels has been created to prevent it from happening again. Photo: Nora Tam
Zoe Low
Hong Kong’s expertise in managing floods and preventing landslides can be helpful to the wider Asia-Pacific region in tackling climate change, the city’s environmentalists have said.

Although the city is not directly involved in global climate talks starting in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday, it needs to look at ways it can contribute, said Christine Loh Kung-wai, chief development strategist at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology’s division of environment and sustainability.

World leaders from nearly 200 countries and territories attending the COP26 conference are expected to update pledges under the 2015 Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions and strengthen financing to help developing countries. They will also discuss the phasing out of coal and setting up a global carbon market.

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The massive Tai Hang Tung underground stormwater storage tank in Kowloon. Photo: K. Y. Cheung
The massive Tai Hang Tung underground stormwater storage tank in Kowloon. Photo: K. Y. Cheung
Loh said Hong Kong’s flood management, among the world’s best, was an area of expertise the city could share with others in the region as the world faced more severe storms and flooding brought on by climate change.
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Its expertise in slope management and landslide warnings and prevention – using big data and modelling to understand how soil moves – was another area in which Hong Kong excelled and could contribute to the world.

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