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THE ENVIRONMENT

The Government encourages industry and commerce to recognise the benefits of waste minimisation and pollution prevention and to work to achieve these goals by taking their own initiatives. Statutory control guidelines are also provided with well- defined standards to ensure compliance.

Planning Against Pollution

The past decade has seen many achievements in Hong Kong's efforts to pre-empt environmental problems through the application of an environmental assessment process to policy, planning and project proposals. Development and policy proposals submitted to the Executive Council that involve environmental issues and all submissions to the Public Works Subcommittee of the Legislative Council's Finance Committee must contain an assessment of the environmental implications.

Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance

The Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) came into effect on April 1, 1998. It provides a systematic, clear and transparent framework for assessing the environmental impacts arising from major development projects and, where avoidance of the impacts is not practicable, for identifying effective measures to mitigate the impacts to an acceptable level. It is supplemented by a technical memorandum setting out clear and consistent technical guidelines and criteria. Information on applications made under the ordinance is available at the EPD's home page. Since the implementation of the ordinance, 75 EIA reports have been approved (as at December 31) and over one million people and many ecologically sensitive areas are protected against unacceptable environmental impacts.

The EIAO Support Section was established in July 2002 to provide support service to government project proponents on the implementation of the EIAO. The section implements an EIA training and capacity building programme for relevant government departments to enhance their understanding of the EIA mechanism.

Environmental Monitoring and Audit

Environmental monitoring and audit (EM&A) is an integral part of the EIA process to validate the assumptions made in the planning stage and to monitor the effectiveness of prescribed mitigation measures during project implementation. This is to ensure that every project delivers the environmental performance promised in the impact assessments. In 2003, the EPD managed about 154 EM&A programmes for major projects.

Starting from 1999, the EPD has been promoting EM&A reporting through the Internet the Cyber EIA Process under the EIAO. For major projects, permit holders are required to set up dedicated websites to publish their project information including EM&A data and results in a user-friendly format. Since April 2002, major projects have been required to set up web camera systems to make live images of the site conditions accessible by the public through the dedicated website. The web-based reporting provides easier access to information on environmental performance and enhances public participation in the monitoring of the EIA process.

Land Use Planning

Environment concerns are incorporated into land use planning through the application of the environmental planning standards and guidelines. The Advisory