282 The Environment
35 per cent less electricity compared with traditional air-cooled air-conditioning systems.
The DCS will be developed and commissioned for operation in three phases to suit the development schedule of the KTD. The first phase is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 for operation from 2013 onward to match the early developments at the KTD.
The Government recognises the importance of promoting the use of renewable energy in Hong Kong. In 'A First Sustainable Development Strategy for Hong Kong', it sets a target of generating 1 per cent to 2 per cent of Hong Kong's total electricity supply from renewable sources by 2012. Meanwhile, Hong Kong's two power companies are making progress in their attempts to use clean energy to produce electricity. Hongkong Electric Company Limited (HEC) started operating its wind turbine on Lamma Island in 2006. CLP Power Hong Kong Limited (CLP Power) commissioned its commercial scale photovoltaic (PV) system on Town Island in Sai Kung in 2009 while the HEC completed its PV system on Lamma Power Station in 2010. Both companies are planning the development of off-shore commercial wind farms in Hong Kong waters and have completed the Environmental Impact Assessment for their wind farm project.
Legislation and Pollution Control
Hong Kong has eight ordinances on pollution control. These are the Waste Disposal Ordinance, the Water Pollution Control Ordinance, the Air Pollution Control Ordinance, the Noise Control Ordinance, the Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance, the Dumping at Sea Ordinance, the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance and the Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance. Most of them have subsidiary regulations and other statutory provisions such as technical memoranda.
The Government follows a set of environmental quality objectives for better protection of public health and to preserve a natural ecosystem. The cost of imposing limits on polluting emissions is not higher than that needed to achieve conservation goals. These goals include making maximum use of the environment's natural capacity to absorb and recycle waste.
In 2010, EPD inspectors made about 59 000 visits to different locations around Hong Kong to enforce controls on air, noise, waste and water pollution and to deal with complaints about pollution. This resulted in some 394 prosecutions and nearly $2.3 million in fines.
The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (the Stockholm Convention), became effective in Hong Kong in November 2004 and the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade (the Rotterdam Convention) became effective in Hong Kong in August 2008. A local legislation, the Hazardous Chemicals Control Ordinance, came into operation in April 2008 to regulate the import, export, manufacture and use of non-pesticide hazardous chemicals, including those subject to the regulation of the Stockholm Convention and the Rotterdam Convention.