ENG-2004 — Page 358

308 The Environment

package to over 200 participants was held in December 2004 for construction SMEs, and a similar seminar for the electrical/electronic sector is scheduled in January 2005.

Cross-boundary Liaison on EIA and Environmental Planning

Environmental pollution transcends administrative boundaries. Hong Kong and Guangdong have worked together on environmental matters for nearly 20 years. To enhance the collaboration, a Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection was set up in 2000. Various special panels were formed under the Joint Working Group to examine specific environmental issues in which cooperation could be enhanced. In 2004, the Joint Working Group decided to set up a new special panel, comprising members of the Economic and Trade Commission of. Guangdong Province, the Environment, Transport and Works Bureau of the HKSAR and relevant departments of the two governments. The new panel will be responsible for promoting public education and technology of energy saving measures and clean production among the commercial and industrial sectors in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region.

The HKSAR Government and the Guangdong Provincial Government have drawn up a regional air quality management plan that aims to reduce regional pollutant emissions by 20 per cent to 55 per cent by 2010, taking 1997 as the base year. The two governments will start operating a regional monitoring network covering the entire PRD region with 16 monitoring stations in the first quarter of 2005. Subject to the operational situation of the monitoring network, a joint data centre will announce the monitoring results to the public as soon as possible. Both sides are also developing an Emission Trading Pilot Scheme for Fuel-burning Power Plants in the PRD. This serves to provide a study report to the two governments by mid-2006 and present the details of the pilot scheme to the power plants in Hong Kong and Guangdong to enable the prospective participants to identify their trading partners and draw up the emission trading agreements.

On the water quality front, Hong Kong and Shenzhen are undertaking a 15-year water pollution control joint implementation programme to gradually reduce the pollution loads in Deep Bay with the objective of returning the bay to a clean and healthy state by 2015. To gauge its effectiveness and draw up necessary additional mitigation measures, both sides reached an agreement in 2004 on a detailed work plan and established a joint study team to carry out the first progress review of the joint programme. In 2003, a regional strategy to protect the water environment of Mirs Bay was also developed by the two sides. On a regional level, Hong Kong and Guangdong are now working on a joint project to construct a numerical water quality model to provide an analytical tool and the scientific basis for the two Governments to formulate water quality management plans for the Pearl River estuary region. The two sides are also working in collaboration to improve the water quality of the Dongjiang (East River) and to protect Chinese white dolphins and fishery resources.