Hong Kong, 27 April 2017 – Business Environment Council Limited 商界環保協會有限公司 (“BEC”) has made a submission to the Planning Development of the Hong Kong SAR Government on 27 April 2017 in response to the public engagement on “Hong Kong 2030+: Towards a Planning Vision and Strategy Transcending 2030”. BEC welcomes the Government’s engagement on “Hong Kong 2030+” and largely agrees with the 3 building blocks and the conceptual framework. However, BEC considers this forward-looking plan could be enhanced and even more “visionary”.
In the submission, BEC put forward 5 principles and urges the Government to take on board to make Hong Kong 2030+ be more closely aligned with other longer term goals including climate change and protecting our natural environment. They include:
- Ensure the strategic plan is sufficiently ambitious to steer Hong Kong towards meeting the goals of the Climate Action Plan 2030+ and the longer-term goals of the Paris Agreement;
- Hong Kong should strive to be an exemplary liveable city by the 2030s;
- Hong Kong should be a testbed for smart and innovative sustainable development approaches as a means of cultivating human capital and business expertise to leverage economic opportunities in the Belt & Road;
- Embodied carbon in construction should be addressed and minimised;
- Embed the value of the natural environment – both marine and terrestrial - into policies and appraisal methodologies.
BEC recognises that a key challenge is the implementation of the proposals of Hong Kong 2030+ and doing so in a way that helps deliver the Government’s other strategies on sustainable development. To this end, BEC suggests the establishment of a ministerial level inter-departmental steering committee to identify and oversee all the regulatory and administrative changes that will be required in order to achieve this vision.
Full version of BEC’s submission can be accessed at BEC’s website at: http://bec.org.hk/files/images/Resource_Centre/Submission/20170427_HK_2030_Submission.pdf
– END –
(English version only)