The Hong Kong Climate Action Report

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Past Event

2021-01-28

“A year of waiting” for climate action in Hong Kong: The city scored a “C” in 2020.

“A year of waiting” for climate action in Hong Kong: The city scored a “C” in 2020.

January 29, 2021

On January 28, 2021, CarbonCare InnoLab (CCIL) has released the “Paris Watch Hong Kong Climate Action Reports 2020”. More than 100 people has attended the live broadcasting event. CCIL is grateful for the support from the stakeholders who concern about climate change.

The Hong Kong Climate Action Report assesses Hong Kong’s progress on climate action by comparing, ensuring the city’s compliance to the objectives in the Paris Agreement. It also compares Hong Kong’s performance with neighboring regions, including prominent Asian cities such as Tokyo, Shenzhen, Singapore, Guangzhou and Seoul. The Hong Kong Climate Action Report documented Hong Kong’s performance in the spectrum; its progress in climate mitigation were also computed. The press release of Paris Watch is hosted by the Project Leads of this research, Mr. CHONG Chan-Yau and Mr. John SAYER, who summarized and analyzed the report and responded to the enquires of participants.

With reference to the main objectives of the Paris Agreement, the performance of Hong Kong will be assessed according to following criteria:

  • Mitigation – reduce emissions to lessen the damage on climate
  • Adaptation – preparing Hong Kong to adapt to climate change, and to ensure the safety and well-being in the city;
  • Institutional development – In need of supporting policies, financial capital, technological advancement and vocational training that support climate change mitigation and adaptation

Hong Kong’s performance in 2020

Regarding Hong Kong’s performance in climate action in the past year, our expert panel gave Hong Kong a “C” grade, which is a slight improvement from last year’s “C-”. The change is likely due to the recent announcement of a new target – “Carbon Neutrality in 2050”, rather than any substantial improvement in climate mitigation and adaptation.

  • In November 2020, the Policy Address of the following year issued by the government stated a new target – “Carbon Neutrality in 2050”. Yet, there was no specific policies nor fiscal budgets to actualize the goal. Therefore, only a “C-” was given in the field of reducing carbon footprint.

  • As for the generation of renewable energies, recent studies have shown the development potential of floating solar panels, yet the government has no implementation plans; the scale of development and execution of feed-in tariffs, which promotes the installation of solar panels on rooftops, is still limited by technical problems; Hong Kong still lacks the ambition and determination to replace fossil-fuels with renewable means, as the current goal remained as achieving 3-4% of total power generation by 2030. It can be seen that in the future, the city will still be highly dependent on fossil fuels. Accordingly, a "D+" is given.

  • Current regulations ("Building Energy Efficiency Ordinance”) are outdated. They could only cover certain types of buildings, the comprehensiveness of energy efficiency indicators is also lacking. As the energy efficiency of buildings have much room for improvement, it has been rated "C+".

  • In terms of protecting the health of citizens, the rating received is "D+". As climate change worsen, Hong Kong has yet to formulate rapid response policies to deal with heat waves and epidemic outbreaks, not to mention measures to help residents of sub-divided units with subpar living environment to cope with dreadful weather conditions. The government needs to focus on vulnerable groups and implement relevant policies to help them amidst heat waves and pandemic outbreaks, which are seemingly more common due to climate change.

  • As an international financial centre, Hong Kong should lead the global financial market in response to climate change. However, the development of carbon reduction market mechanisms such as carbon emissions trading and carbon emissions taxation are far behind other developed cities, thus the financial rating of " C".

Mr. CHONG Chan-yau, the Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of CarbonCare InnoLab stated that, these two reports have truthfully recorded Hong Kong’s progress in fulfilling its responsibilities under the Paris Climate Agreement. It also aims to promote Hong Kong’s formulation of a more dedicated strategy on carbon reduction. Hong Kong is one of China’s more developed economic systems with mature financial and technological resources; China has also pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Additionally, Hong Kong is also a Steering Group member of C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group. Therefore, Hong Kong should be leading climate action in the region.

Mr. John SAYER, the Research Director of CarbonCare InnoLab voiced his concern. “2020 has felt like a year of waiting, while the impact of climate change manifested itself in more extreme weather events around the world. The process of developing long-term targets began early in 2019, but the recommendations from the Council for Sustainable Development only emerged at the end of 2020. C40 Cities put out a report back in 2016 called “Deadline 2020” noting the urgency for cities to set comprehensive climate action plans in motion before 2020, the report said clearly: “The overriding and deeply significant finding of the work is that the next 4 years will determine whether or not the world’s megacities can deliver their part of the ambition of the Paris Agreement. Without action by cities the Paris Agreement cannot realistically be delivered.”

CCIL emphasizes that, should the goal of carbon neutrality be achieved by 2050, the following actions must be taken promptly:

  • Implement climate action plans immediately;
  • Lay out specific targets, timetables and performance indicators to substantially reduce carbon emissions in Hong Kong for the next few years;
  • Formulate an overall budget supported by genuine funding plans;
  • Establish a leadership structure among senior government officials;
  • Develop an action plan to promote carbon reduction supported by the business sector, the finance sector and the general public.

Hong Kong should have formulated a more eager climate action blueprint earlier. Further delay shall amplify the consequences borne by the people of Hong Kong.


 
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