ENG-2017 — Page 303

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The Environment

Pollution Prevention

Air Pollution

The government is working to broadly attain its air quality objectives by 2020. The EPD is collecting views on possible new air quality improvement measures and expects to complete its review of the objectives in 2018.

The department takes action to reduce emissions from local air pollution sources. Between 2007 and 2015, emissions of sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOx), respirable suspended particulates (RSP) and volatile organic compounds (VOC) dropped 27 percentage points to 76 per cent. From 2008 to 2017, ambient concentrations of RSP, fine suspended particulates (FSP), nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and SO2 dropped 31 per cent, 42 per cent, 25 per cent and 60 per cent respectively, and roadside concentrations of RSP, FSP, NO2 and SO2 fell 43 per cent, 37 per cent, 12 per cent and 70 per cent respectively. Ambient ozone increased 31 per cent during the same period, indicating that the regional photochemical smog problem remains challenging. The department will continue to strengthen regional collaboration to tackle the problem.

Land Transport

Vehicle emissions are the major source of roadside air pollution. The government's policy is to apply the most stringent practicable motor vehicle fuel and emission standards. The emission standards for newly registered vehicles, except diesel private cars, buses with a design weight of not more than 9 tonnes, light buses with a design weight of more than 3.5 tonnes, motorcycles and tricycles, were tightened from Euro V to Euro VI in phases starting from 1 July, and those for newly registered diesel private cars were tightened from California LEV II to LEV III from 1 October.

Nearly all taxis and about 74 per cent of public light buses run on LPG. The first registration tax is reduced for buyers of newly registered environment-friendly commercial vehicles, which have low emissions. An incentive and regulatory scheme, launched in 2014 to phase out some 82,000 pre-Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles by the end of 2019, had put about 60,200 such vehicles out of service by end-2017.

The Smoky Vehicle Control Programme and the Strengthened Emissions Control for Petrol and LPG Vehicles Programme aim to control excessive smoke from diesel vehicles and excessive emissions from petrol and LPG vehicles due to poor maintenance. In 2017, 3,122 diesel vehicles with excessive smoke were reported and 2,988 petrol and LPG vehicles with excessive emissions were identified by roadside remote sensors. Such vehicles must pass a chassis dynamometer emission test at a test centre within 12 days to prove the emission problem has been rectified.

The government offers first registration tax concessions for electric vehicles. Between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2018, the tax on electric commercial vehicles, motorcycles and tricycles is fully waived, and that on electric private cars is waived up to $97,500. The fleet grew 53 per cent from 2016 to 11,099 in 2017. About 1,860 charging points are available for public use, including some 330 quick and 600 medium charging points.

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