Combating climate change is an important issue across the globe. President Xi Jinping made it clear that our country would endeavour to achieve the peak of carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. To signify Hong Kong’s commitment, the Government has announced that Hong Kong would strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2050, and the interim decarbonisation target to reduce Hong Kong’s carbon emissions by 50% before 2035 as compared to the 2005 level. In October 2021, the Government promulgated the Hong Kong’s Climate Action Plan 2050 which outlined four major decarbonisation strategies, namely “net-zero electricity generation”, “energy saving and green buildings”, “green transport” and “waste reduction”, as well as interim targets that would contribute to the achievement of carbon neutrality for Hong Kong before 2050.
It is an extremely challenging target to achieve carbon neutrality in less than 30 years. The work of combating climate change cuts across many policy areas and requires extensive coordination both within and outside the Government. We need to adopt a whole-government approach to formulate holistic and proactive decarbonisation measures, engage local, Mainland and overseas authorities and stakeholders on low-carbon development, and strive to encourage the participation of the whole community with a view to bringing about sustainable improvement to the environment and driving the development of a green economy. The inter-departmental Steering Committee on Climate Change and Carbon Neutrality chaired by the Chief Executive formulates the overall strategy and oversees the coordination of various actions.
