Climate Change Stakeholder Engagement Forum
http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201607/12/P2016071200710.htm?fontSize=1%20
The Environment Bureau today (July 12) convened the Climate Change Stakeholder Engagement Forum at the Conference Hall of the Central Government Offices to enable the Government to tap the views of more than 600 stakeholders of various sectors to facilitate formulation of Hong Kong's long-term climate strategy.
The Forum was chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Carrie Lam. The Secretary for the Environment, Mr Wong Kam-sing, and representatives from other relevant policy bureaux and government departments were also present. Stakeholders came from various sectors including energy and transport, property management, hotels, construction, education, banking and waste recycling, as well as religious groups, professional bodies, trade associations and civil servant groups. Other attendees included members of the Legislative Council and non-governmental organisations. During the forum, participants discussed how to mitigate, adapt to and enhance resilience for climate change, challenges being faced and the long-term climate strategy.
Mrs Lam said that since climate change is a cross-sector, cross-domain problem affecting different strata of society, active support and involvement of the community and every citizen are required to combat climate change.
Mrs Lam briefly introduced to the participants the Government’s work on facilitating emission reduction including the promotion of smart city development, green transportation and green buildings. She stressed that the Government would formulate the development direction of Hong Kong based on the sustainability principle and strengthen energy saving and waste reduction efforts in order to strike a balance between development and environmental conservation while improving living quality.
The Government has also upgraded the capacity of the drainage system, improved the coastal structure design to reduce the risk of flooding due to sea level rise, set up an adverse weather surveillance and public safety alert system and carried out other measures in order to strengthen adaptability and resilience to climate change.
The Government will enhance publicity and public education, and organise and take part in a series of publicity events to encourage the community to work together to combat climate change. The Government will continue to promote environmental education, with an emphasis on climate change, to students and encourage schools to organise and participate in learning activities on climate change and a green lifestyle.
The Government has set targets to reduce carbon intensity by 50 per cent to 60 per cent by 2020, compared with the level in 2005. Through the various efforts, Hong Kong is on track to meet the carbon reduction target for 2020. The Steering Committee on Climate Change chaired by the Chief Secretary for Administration will steer and co-ordinate the climate actions of relevant bureaux and departments and come up with a carbon reduction target for 2030.
The Government will summarise the views collected from the above forum and other channels with an aim of coming up with an enhanced climate change work plan and a carbon reduction target for 2030 towards the end of this year. Members of the public are welcome to provide views on how Hong Kong should combat climate change to the Environment Bureau through email to [email protected] or fax to 2838 2155 on or before August 20. More information about climate change is available at the Environmental Protection Department's website: www.epd.gov.hk/epd/english/climate_change/index.html.
Other government policy secretaries attending the forum today included the Secretary for Transport and Housing, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung; the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung; the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok; the Secretary for Education, Mr Eddie Ng Hak-kim; the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr Ko Wing-man; and the Secretary for Development, Mr Paul Chan.
Ends/Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Issued at HKT 20:30
View all Climate Forum video here
View the Public View document here
Power point presentation by the Secretary for the Environment