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The Environment

The Environment Bureau's Energy Division oversees Hong Kong's energy policy to provide reliable supplies of energy at reasonable prices and promote their economical and safe use while minimising the environmental impact of energy usage and production. The bureau's Sustainable Development Division promotes sustainable development in both the government and the community and provides secretariat support to the Council for Sustainable Development.

Government spending on the environment in 2013-14 was budgeted at $18.5 billion, or about 4 per cent of total public expenditure.

Environmental Awareness

The EPD works closely with the government-appointed Environmental Campaign Committee to enhance public environmental awareness through campaigns and community programmes, including activities promoting waste reduction and recycling, energy conservation and other environmental initiatives. The EPD's environmental resource and education centres provide the public with easy access to environmental information. By providing grants to local non-profit making organisations to implement educational, research and other projects relating to the environment and conservation, the Environmental Conservation Fund seeks to promote behavioural and lifestyle changes to protect the environment and achieve sustainable development,

Topography, Geology and Landforms

Hong Kong's natural terrain is characterised by rugged uplands flanked by steep slopes. The highest point is Tai Mo Shan (957 metres above Principal Datum) in the central New Territories, and the lowest point (66 metres below Principal Datum) is in Lo Chau Mun (the Beaufort Channel) to the north of Po Toi Island. The mountains are predominantly formed of volcanic rocks, whereas the lower hills and low-lying areas are generally underlain by granite or sedimentary rocks. A layer of soft, weathered rock covers the bedrock in most places, slope debris mantles the natural hillsides, and alluvium fills many of the valleys. Offshore, the seabed is covered with marine mud, with sand sheets occurring near the coast and in channels.

The oldest exposed rocks in Hong Kong were deposited as river sediments approximately 400 million years ago. From 350 to 290 million years ago, limestones (now marble) and siltstones, found in western and central New Territories accumulated in a shallow sea. From 170 to 140 million years ago, violent eruptions depositing thick ash layers occurred from several volcanic centres. Volcanism ended with a colossal eruption from a giant volcano (High Island Supervolcano) centred in southeast Hong Kong. Subsequent uplift and erosion has revealed a cross-section from the top of the supervolcano in Sai Kung to its underlying magma chamber in Kowloon and northern Hong Kong Island. Layered rocks seen on the island of Ping Chau are younger sediments, laid down in a lake on the edge of a desert, about 50 million years ago.

The northeast New Territories represents the most comprehensive stratigraphy of sedimentary rocks in Hong Kong, ranging from Devonian sandstone and conglomerate aged about 400 million years to Paleogene siltstone formed 50 million years ago.

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