'Plan Now For Long-term Emission Reductions'

A leading sustainability advocate says Hong Kong needs to move more quickly to achieve its long-term goals in reducing emissions and meet its obligations under the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

The SAR aims to have a new long-term de-carbonisation strategy in place by the end of this year, or early next year.

It'll include measures to drastically cut carbon emissions by 2050.

"I'm happy to hear that Hong Kong is creating a 2050 de-carbonisation plan, but we need a plan for 2040, not for 2050, which means 10 years earlier, which means only 20 years away, which is actually tomorrow," said Peter Bakker, president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

"If you want to redesign your public-transport system or any other piece of infrastructure, those are very long-term investments so you need to make the right choices now."

Simon Ng, director of policy and research at the Business Environment Council, believes Hong Kong has a good foundation to start electrifying its public transport.

But he said the government's focus at the moment seems to be on private cars, which are not the biggest problem.

"I think we have to not just say we're going to electrify our vehicles, but be more specific, targeting the main emitter and where we can get the biggest impact," Ng said.

The Council for Sustainable Development is currently conducting a public engagement exercise to gather views on de-carbonisation strategies, before making recommendations to the government.