Can C.Y. Leung and Carrie Lam shake officials into action on air pollution?
Mayling Chan says it will take more than just political will at the top to improve Hong Kong's air quality; everyone in society, including intransigent civil servants and lawmakers, needs to be on board
The Environmental Protection Department last month announced that the city had achieved its overall clean-air targets under a joint scheme with Guangdong province, citing the results of an air pollution inventory. The Audit Commission report released last week, however, painted a gloomier picture than expected, saying that the existing air-quality objectives had never been fully achieved since they were introduced in 1987.
Sadly, since 2006, the department has never met its target for the Air Pollution Index of not exceeding the "very high" level of 100 on any day in a year. And the number of days in a year with excessive pollution has risen from 74 in 2007 to 175 last year.
Taking a more holistic perspective, the report put both the Transport and Housing Bureau and the Environmental Protection Department on the spot for not imposing stricter fuel standards on ocean-going and local vessels.
Although the report came as a surprise to many, it would not have been a shock for Wong Kam-sing, the Environment Secretary, who just four months into his term told some green groups frankly that the take-up rate had been low - a mere 10 per cent - for the scheme to replace commercial diesel vehicles. Hence, it was not expected to be effective.
There are still some 50,000 highly polluting vehicles on our roads, including 17,000 diesel vehicles that are more than 17 years old. This is why Wong sounded out the option of phasing out commercial diesel vehicles when they are 15 years old, to tackle our health-threatening roadside pollution. As environment undersecretary Christine Loh Kung-wai said, such an achievable solution was "low-hanging fruit" that would provide an immediate improvement.
We have sufficient reason to believe that both Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor have the political will to protect public health.
Leung mentioned the health impacts of harmful emissions from vehicles and ships in his speech to the Legislative Council in October, and in his inaugural speech on July 1 he emphasised that his team needed to "address issues from a high-level perspective and with inter-departmental and cross-sector collaboration", indicating that red tape and a silo mentality work against the political will to improve our living conditions.
