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Only around a third of Hongkongers have said they trust the government to lead the fight against the climate crisis, a study has found, as a green group urged greater transparency on the city’s progress towards its target of carbon neutrality by 2050.
The findings emerged from a four-stage study commissioned by environmental organisation Greenpeace and conducted by the Asian Energy Studies Centre at Hong Kong Baptist University.
They were released as world leaders and climate experts meet in Azerbaijan for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, more commonly known at COP29, with the intention of translating previous climate pledged into real-world outcomes. Secretary for Environment and Ecology Tse Chin-wan was among those in Baku, having joined the Chinese delegation.
The multi-part examination of Hong Kong’s current climate strategy took place between June and October and involved a review of climate action plans from 15 countries and territories; in-depth interviews with 20 academics, experts and industry representatives; a deliberative poll of 196 Hong Kong residents; and a telephone survey of 1,019 residents aged 18 or over conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute.
The polls also found that while 78 per cent of Hongkongers surveyed believed it was the government’s responsibility to take the lead on combating the climate crisis, followed by energy companies and the general public, only 35 per cent trusted the government to do so.
“Most Hong Kong citizens, they do not believe… that the Hong Kong government could help to combat climate change in Hong Kong,” Darren Cheung from the Asian Research Studies Centre, said during a video call with HKFP last Thursday.
Cheung added that the discrepancy between what people said they wanted from the government and their faith in it “implies that the current government policy – although people say that they support what the government is doing – it is not good enough… they think the government should do more.”
After indefinitely suspending a waste tax designed to reduce the amount of rubbish sent to landfill earlier this year following public backlash, Tse last month said there would be no “hard deadline” for the implementation of the second phase of a ban on single-use plastic in Hong Kong.
Speaking during the same video call, Tom Ng, a campaigner for Greenpeace, said “having a clear plan” was key to addressing the public’s low level of trust. “Transparency is really important,” he added.
In 2021, the previous administration published the Hong Kong Climate Action Plan, outlining four major decarbonisation strategies to help the city achieve its goal of carbon neutrality by the middle of the century. Then-leader Carrie Lam also pledged HK$240 billion to combat the climate crisis that year.
Comparing Hong Kong’s blueprint with those from other countries and territories, researchers led by Cheung found it lacking in several areas, including the protection of the natural environment, climate adaptation, management of water resources, education, and public health.
The experts agreed, with many of those interviewed saying that while Hong Kong’s climate adaptation plan was a step in the right direction, it lacked detail and needed more ambitious targets. Ten interviewees stressed the need to prioritise local renewable energy, and eight said better climate adaptation policies were needed, in particular those that take underprivileged residents into account.
Hong Kong’s poorest bear the brunt of extreme weather in the city, with rising temperatures putting outdoor workers and those living in substandard accommodation most at risk.
“We need to address the climate justice issue when we’re talking about climate change in Hong Kong,” Ng said.
The Greenpeace campaigner said the organisation had three recommendations for the government ahead of the release of a new climate action plan, which was anticipated next year.
The first was aligned to a major finding from the deliberative and telephone surveys, in which 78 per cent of respondents said they thought Hong Kong should promote the development of renewable energies.
Ng said Greenpeace recommended reviving discussion about offshore wind farm projects in Hong Kong’s eastern and southern waters, and enhancing solar collection to achieve a target of 10 per cent “true renewable energy” by 2030.
In an emailed response to enquiries from HKFP, a spokesperson from the Environment and Ecology Bureau (EEB) said that the government attached “great importance to the work on combating climate change.” In 2022, around 3,699 terajoules of renewable energy were produced and consumed by end users in Hong Kong, according to the EEB spokesperson.
“Currently, we are at about 1 per cent,” Ng said of energy that came from renewable sources. Solar panels have been installed on the rooftops of some private and commercial buildings in Hong Kong, as well as on some government buildings, though the vertical nature of the city means that there is a limit to the amount of energy they can generate.
Ng said, however, that there was “a lot of room” to expand solar energy collection on reservoirs managed by the Water Supplies Department or at closed landfill sites. “Those are also areas that the Hong Kong government can [use] to explore the potential of renewable energy,” Ng added.
“The second suggestion to the government is that they should do a full-scale adaptation assessment to calculate… which parts of Hong Kong are facing which kind of extreme weather-related events,” Ng said.
“According to this adaptation assessment, [the government should] push out different adaptation measures, and those measures also need to take into account the underprivileged people.”
The final suggestion from Greenpeace involved the HK$240 billion that ex-leader Lam pledged to combat the climate crisis. Ng said he had repeatedly emailed the government following the release of its annual budget to ask for clarity on whether certain policies or projects would come under climate spending. “They never give us a clear answer of clear feedback,” Ng said.
The EEB spokesperson told HKFP that the city had made “clear progress in achieving our goal of carbon neutrality before 2050,” saying that total greenhouse gas emissions in 2022 amounted to 33.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, representing a reduction of about 24 per cent from its peak of 44.2 million tonnes in 2014.
“The Government plans to allocate about $240 billion in the next 15 to 20 years to implement mitigation measures to combat climate change… covering energy saving and green buildings, renewable energy, green transport and waste management,” the spokesperson said.
“Moreover, the Government will undertake measures to adapt to climate change, including strengthening coastal defences, stabilising slopes and conducting drainage improvement works,” they continues, adding that the details and estimated expenditure of each project would be ascertained by the relevant government department “in due course.”
For Ng, though, sharing a more comprehensive plan was essential. “The government should have a clearer plan saying how are they going to use that climate budget… because, okay, the government is nice enough to say that they are going to spend that money, but how are you going to spend that money? How is that going to lead to the 2050 carbon neutrality target?” he said.
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