Hong Kong is committed to reducing carbon emissions and is working with other jurisdictions to do so.

This was the Environmental Protection Department's message today when it opened the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Capacity Building Seminar introducing CDM developments on the Mainland and in Hong Kong.

It said the Government will work with the community and forward measures to promote energy efficiency and reduce the city's reliance on fossil fuels to transform Hong Kong into a low carbon economy based on low energy consumption and low pollution.

Two-hundred participants, including experts from the National Development & Reform Commission, attended the function to learn how CDM allows Annex I Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change & its Kyoto Protocol to fulfil part of their greenhouse gas reduction obligations through technology co-operation projects with non-Annex I Parties.

The department said Hong Kong enterprises can develop CDM by tapping the advantages of the city's environmental protection industry and by procuring additional capital and technology from overseas to invest in low carbon energy projects and production processes that are more environment-friendly and energy-saving.

It said Hong Kong can work with other countries to help itself and the Mainland further reduce greenhouse emissions for sustainable development.