Green group Friends of the Earth is urging Chief Executive John Lee to roll out environmentally-friendly measures in this month’s policy address.
The call comes after this year saw Hong Kong’s hottest Mid-Autumn Festival ever, and September last year brought the heaviest rainfall on record.
The group’s chief executive officer Jeffrey Hung on Friday said the administration should place more emphasis on the environment, to allow the city to develop sustainably.
“Hong Kong has lots of developments in the coming years, the government must have to incorporate climate change evaluations or assessments in the environmental impact assessment. Climate change is a very pressing environmental challenge for Hong Kong, for the world and for the economy,” Hung said.
He said severe flooding caused by super typhoons Hato and Mangkhut in 2017 and 2018 showed that the city is not able to withstand extreme weather events.
“Hong Kong needs to enhance our infrastructure because Hong Kong is a coastal city. We foresee that these extreme weather events will occur more frequently in the upcoming years, so the Civil Engineering and Development Department has to review our coastal infrastructure and the government has to deploy more resources to strengthen our coastal flooding prevention measures,” he said.
Hung said while many government departments are involved in tackling the climate change issue, the government could look into setting up a dedicated department to allow for better organisation.
Meanwhile, Hung said even though a planned “pay-as-you-throw” scheme for household rubbish was halted earlier this year, there needs to be more public education on waste disposal.
“The scheme is a key measure to mobilise the community to have a behavioural change. Hong Kong per capita disposal waste is 1.5kg per day, and this never dropped over the past decade. Our disposal behaviour does not show any improvement,” he said.
Hung said the public need to be better prepared for when the charging plan is resurrected.
Other suggestions of the group include more cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland regarding recycling, an expansion of the electricity market to allow the participation of renewable energy companies, and the promotion of green finance initiatives.