ENG-1996 — Page 477

THE ENVIRONMENT

Impact Assessment Bill was gazetted and introduced to the Legislative Council in January 1996. The Legislative Council's Bills Committee completed its scrutiny of the Bill in December.

Environmental Monitoring and Audit

To ensure that the environmental performance of projects specified in EIA studies will be delivered in practice requires conscientious environmental monitoring and audit (EM&A). In 1992 the Environmental Protection Department set up an environmental monitoring and audit team, and subsequently Environmental Project Offices (ENPO) in West Kowloon and in Kwai Tsing to pre-empt and resolve environmental problems associated with the Airport Core Projects in the areas.

Monitoring and auditing have now become an integral part of the EIA process and often they are extended beyond the construction stage of a project into its operation. Hong Kong's EM&A activities have been highly rated by international peer review. In 1996, the department managed about 60 EM&A programmes for major projects, including the Airport Core Projects.

Land Use Planning

The technical part of the Territorial Development Strategy (TDS) Review was completed in 1996 and its findings released in July 1996 for public consultation until the end of the year. A strategic-level environmental assessment process was applied throughout the entire study, to identify major environmental issues, to integrate environmental factors into the strategy formulation and to consider various possible environmental implications of the long-term and medium-term strategies. Some environmentally undesirable development components were discarded during the process. The results also show that there would be potentially negative environmental impacts and possible deterioration of environmental quality in parts of the territory as a result of demand-led developments. Some of these issues could be resolved through timely provision of resources and more positive environmental measures, while others may require policy initiatives. This could be further considered in the context of the Study on Sustainable Development for the 21st Century (SUSDEV21) and other studies.

Environmental Sustainability

To protect the environment, project implementation through the application of the EIA process and the establishment of a statutory framework are necessary. The society has to proceed with socially responsible economic development while protecting the resource base and the environment for the benefit of future generations. Under SUSDEV21, the government will study how a framework integrating sectoral, environmental, economic and social policies and plans could be formulated. At the same time, in line with the international trend to place environmentally friendly discussion into corporate management, emphasis will be placed in the promotion of the introduction of Corporate Green Management and appropriate Environmental Management Systems such as the ISO 14000.

Cross-border Liaison on EIA and Environmental Planning

Hong Kong's environmental quality can both affect and be affected by that of its neighbours in Shenzhen and Guangdong. Environmental collaboration between

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