Talking on the ReThink convention in Hong Kong on Thursday, secretary for the setting and ecology Tse Chin-wan, named “house constraints” and a scarcity of pure assets among the many key challenges the territory faces as it really works in direction of a 2050 internet zero purpose, which is a decade earlier than mainland China’s 2060 goal.
A scarcity of house has been a “fixed problem” all through Hong Kong’s improvement historical past, which has made it exhausting to implement large-scale initiatives, Tse stated.
Nevertheless, non-government organisations argue that Hong Kong’s internet zero ambitions could be affected by a plan to create a brand new enterprise district and residential space on synthetic islands unfold over 1,000 hectares of reclaimed land. World Broad Fund for Nature (WWF) has known as for the venture to be scrapped due to the risk it poses to marine mammals, corals, fisheries and the human inhabitants by increasing areas of oxygen-depleted water near one of many world’s most densely populated cities.
The deliberate website of the 1,000-hectare Kau Yi Chau synthetic islands [click to enlarge]. The federal government has stated that their Y-shape configuration will minimise the impression of reclamation on water high quality and ecology. Picture: centralwaters.hk
First mooted in 2014, the Kau Yi Chau synthetic islands – beforehand dubbed the Lantau Imaginative and prescient venture – have been promoted as a part of the answer to Hong Kong’s acute housing disaster and promise to supply hundreds of properties and jobs.
Reclamation work was on account of begin subsequent yr, with completion earmarked for 2033, though the venture has been delayed.
The islands are certainly one of two main improvement initiatives within the works within the Chinese language metropolis, the opposite being the Northern Metropolis, which is slated to cowl 30,000 hectares of land – greater than 1 / 4 of Hong Kong’s whole land space – within the New Territories, Hong Kong’s rural hinterland that borders the mainland.
Talking to Eco-Enterprise on the sidelines of ReThink, Wander Meijer, govt director of Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Backyard, an area reforestation initiative and sustainable life-style hub, stated Hong Kong has quite a few brownfield websites, notably within the Northern Territories, which are viable options to land reclamation.
“After all, Hong Kong is space-constrained and for that purpose, we have now to be sure that the land we have now is used optimally – reasonably than attempting to create ‘new land’ at huge value,” he stated. The Kau Yi Chau synthetic islands have a HK$580 billion (US$74 billion) price ticket.
“There are lots of brownfields in Hong Kong, outdated industrial websites that are under-used. Should you pour concrete into the ocean, you’ll use loads of embodied carbon – which matches in opposition to the carbon discount coverage of Hong Kong,” he stated.
Embodied carbon refers back to the emissions throughout infrastructure building reasonably than when the constructing or website is in use.
Talking on a panel at ReThink, James Sze, a director on the engineering agency behind the unreal islands, Arup, stated that “keep away from” and “minimise” ideas could be deployed – for example, creating buffer zones between neighbouring islands and corals, and deploying “intelligent” conservation strategies, equivalent to floating synthetic reefs.
Among the many environmental impression measures being thought-about for the venture are the usage of building waste to minimise the necessity for sand – which inexperienced teams have flagged is commonly sourced from environmentally-sensitive areas. Hong Kong’s building business generates 30 million tonnes of waste a yr, which is often shipped to the mainland to be used in reclamation initiatives there.
Some have contended that the proposed website space for the unreal islands, close to Lantau, may already be thought-about a brownfield website, as a result of it’s has lengthy been used to moor ships and is an space of excessive human exercise.
The environmental impression of the Kau Yi Chau synthetic islands is being assessed by consulting agency Aecom. The outcomes are on account of be launched later this yr.
Sources Eco-Enterprise spoke to at ReThink recommended that the important thing motivation behind the venture is to maintain Hong Kong’s highly effective actual property sector. The federal government has lengthy generated revenue from auctioning off land to builders, which has enabled Hong Kong’s low-tax system and standing as a world enterprise hub.
Nevertheless, a protracted property stoop has hamstrung that mannequin. Authorities income from land within the 2023-2024 fiscal yr was the bottom for the reason that world monetary disaster.
The Northern Metropolis
Meijer is extra supportive of the Northern Metropolis venture, due to plans to combine nature into its design. The HK$224 billion (US$29 billion) venture features a conservation plan to safeguard the realm’s biodiverse wetlands and fishponds, though WWF has voiced concern that the flagship function, the San Tin Technopole tech district, will infringe on areas of excessive ecological worth.
An artist’s impression of the San Tin Technopole, a expertise and innovation district inside the Northern Metropolis. Masking 610 hectares, completion is slated for 2031. Environmental teams fear concerning the impression of the event on biodiverse wetlands and fishponds. Picture: Aecom
WWF, which has managed the Mai Po nature reserve within the Northern Territories for 40 years, has additionally known as for brand new improvement areas in the Northern Metropolis to be constructed utilizing “sponge metropolis” design, with rivers and streams allowed to run via concreted areas, to keep away from flash flooding and water air pollution points – which have turn out to be extra intense with local weather change.
“The Northern Metropolis might be a superb plan, as nature shall be built-in into trendy residing. Let’s spend our power and cash on that and never develop synthetic islands, that are costly and go in opposition to the Hong Kong authorities’s [net zero] coverage,” stated Meijer.
“The world is altering. Hong Kong is altering – with altering wants. We don’t must proceed to construct extra buildings to create extra jobs,” he stated. “Within the period of local weather change, it’s most essential we protect nature and construct nature into the event of the Northern Metropolis.” he stated.
Although hundreds have abandoned town amid social upheaval within the years for the reason that 2019 protests that had been adopted by a crackdown on political freedoms, Hong Kong’s inhabitants stablised final yr, boosted by returning residents, the federal government has stated.
