Any cross-border clean-up of air pollution must require co-operation among regional authorities. Opportunities for strong collaboration can be created and sustained, but Hong Kong must make this happen. A good place to start is our own government's consultation on reviewing local air quality standards.
I'm often asked whether people across the border are sufficiently aware about environmental problems to want to do something about them. Studies clearly show a high level of public concern in the Pearl River Delta. In 2001-2002, when Civic Exchange worked with a Shenzhen organisation on the first environmental survey of public attitudes in the PRD, air pollution ranked third among people's environmental concerns, behind food safety and clean drinking water. At the time there had been a spate of illnesses linked to contaminated food and water.