Collaboration with Greater Bay Area cities such as Zhuhai crucial as Hong Kong chases its 2050 clean energy goals under Paris Agreement, minister says
- Secretary for Environment Wong Kam-sing stresses regional cooperation despite tensions amid protest crisis
- Wong calls for broader perspective and creative thinking if Hong Kong is to reach its 2050 targets
Hong Kong can tap into the resources of the Greater Bay Area and work with neighbouring cities such as Zhuhai as it turns to renewable energy to withstand the next three decades of climate change, environment minister Wong Kam-sing has said.
The secretary for environment stressed the need for regional collaboration despite escalating tensions between Hong Kong and the mainland amid the city’s ongoing anti-government protest crisis.
In an interview with the Post last week, Wong called on the people of Hong Kong to be open and innovative when seeking the clean energy needed to meet the global pledge to cut carbon emissions. Wong’s comments, which included a range of ideas for the environment, came as the government formulates its own low-carbon strategy for 2050.
“Hong Kong needs [to examine the issue] with a broader perspective by looking into regional cooperation,” he said, citing offshore electricity generation as an example.
“The sea territory is small in Hong Kong: only a tiny percentage of solar and wind energy can be generated from it,” he said. “How about the waters south of Hong Kong? This belongs to Zhuhai. I think there is room for sharing and cooperation among cities in the Greater Bay Area under the [national] strategy.”
Zhuhai is among the nine Guangdong province cities covered in the Greater Bay Area, a national scheme to integrate these areas with Hong Kong and Macau into an economic powerhouse to rival Silicon Valley.
