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The Environment
Hong Kong is also working with the Mainland to reduce regional vessel emissions, including the establishment of a marine domestic emission control zone in the Pearl River Delta waters by 2019.
Power generation
Power plants are a major source of local emissions. The government progressively tightens statutory emission caps on the power sector and encourages the power companies to use cleaner fuels. The emission caps for the three key pollutants, SO2, NOx and RSP, were tightened in November 2016, to achieve 52 to 72 per cent of the 2010 levels by 2021.
Indoor Air Quality
The government's Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) Management Programme offers a voluntary IAQ Certification Scheme for offices and public places to recognise good IAQ management practices and to provide incentives for property owners or property management companies to pursue the best indoor air quality.
Ozone Layer Protection
The Montreal Protocol for controlling substances that deplete the ozone layer applies to Hong Kong. The Ozone Layer Protection Ordinance prohibits manufacture of these substances as well as their import for local consumption, except hydrochlorofluorocarbons, which are subject to import quotas with a view to banning their import completely by 2020.
Non-road Mobile Machinery
Emissions from non-road mobile machinery are controlled under a regulation that took effect in 2015, covering regulated machines powered by internal combustion engines, such as crawler cranes, air compressors and excavators. New machinery supplied for use in Hong Kong must meet statutory emission requirements, namely the Euro Stage IIIA emission standard for regulated machines and the Euro V emission standard for non-road vehicles. All machinery to be used in specified activities or locations, such as the airport, container terminals and construction sites, must bear labels issued by the EPD from December 2015.
Noise Pollution
Road Traffic Noise
Proponents of development projects are required to assess traffic noise impact when planning new residential properties and new roads. They need to provide direct mitigation measures such as barriers and low-noise road surfacing for new roads; and to use innovative building designs such as acoustic balconies and windows to ensure traffic noise at noise-sensitive receivers stays within acceptable levels. These requirements, together with measures including the Noise Barrier Retrofitting Programme and Low Noise Road Surface Trial Programme, have reduced the number of people exposed to excessive traffic noise from 1.14 million to 960,000 over the past 10 years despite increases in the population, number of vehicles and total length of roads.
All newly registered vehicles must comply with internationally recognised noise standards to prevent individual vehicles from producing excessive noise.
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