HK-GD environment meeting held

December 12, 2019

Secretary for the Environment KS Wong today attended the first meeting of the Hong Kong-Guangdong Joint Working Group on Environmental Protection & Combating Climate Change in Guangzhou.

 

He co-chaired the meeting with Guangdong Department of Ecology & Environment Director-General Lu Xiulu.

 

Both sides reviewed the progress of collaboration this year and agreed on a 2020 work plan.

 

In the past year, there was smooth progress in collaboration on improving the air quality in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region, protecting the water environment, enhancing co-operation in forestry and marine resources conservation as well as combating climate change.

 

On improving air quality, Hong Kong and Guangdong are implementing various measures and monitoring their progress and effectiveness to meet the emission reduction targets for 2020.

 

Both sides agreed to include the monitoring of ambient volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the PRD Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network and have started preparatory work.

 

Hong Kong and Guangdong also launched a study on post-2020 regional air pollutant emission reduction targets and concentration levels.

 

As for the 2020 work plan, in addition to formulating regional air pollutant emission measures and targets and predicting the expected air quality levels through the study, the two places will include ambient VOCs in their routine monitoring to boost regional ozone control.

 

They will also strengthen co-operation on air quality forecasting to improve the PRD region's forecasting capability.

 

The working group was formed by merging two former Hong Kong-Guangdong joint working groups on sustainable development and combating climate change.

 

The Hong Kong-Guangdong Joint Working Group on Cleaner Production also held its sixth meeting in Guangzhou today.

 

Mr Wong co-chaired the meeting with Department of Industry & Information Technology of Guangdong Province Director-General Tu Gaokun.

 

They reviewed the work progress in 2019 and discussed next year’s strategy, including the continuous promotion of the use of cleaner production technologies and management systems for energy saving by high energy consumption industries.

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