HK, Guangdong plan pilot emissions trading scheme
(AP)
Updated: 2006-08-03 15:19
HONG KONG (AP) _ Hong Kong and the southern
Chinese province of Guangdong plan to launch a pilot plan to reduce pollution from power
plants by the end of the year, Hong Kong's leader said.
Guangdong is one of China's biggest manufacturing bases. Its air pollution
often blows down to Hong Kong, whose skyline is frequently obscured by haze.
Hong Kong leader Donald Tsang announced the plan after meeting with Guangdong
governor Huang Huahua Wednesday in the provincial capital of Guangzhou. He did
not give details.
The plans involve an "emissions trading" arrangement that gives polluters
emissions quotas and allowing them to sell unused quotas to other polluters.
Factories or power plants are fined for exceeding their quotas, or
alternatively, they can buy unused quotas from other less severe polluters.
The underlying premise is to create a financial incentive for businesses to
pollute less.
Environmental group Greenpeace's Hong Kong branch said in a statement the
plan will only succeed if appropriate quotas are set and the fine for
overpolluting is stiff enough.
"We recommend that the fine for overpolluting should serve as a deterrent, so
that power suppliers won't decide they'd rather take the fine than cut
emissions," Greenpeace spokeswoman Gloria Chang said.
However, Chang said she was optimistic that the emissions trading scheme
would follow through and help combat pollution.
"Pollution is high on the agenda. From a political perspective, the two local
governments can't disappoint," she said.
"Our determination to cut emissions is firm," Hong Kong leader Tsang said in
Guangzhou Wednesday.
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