Civil Society

Commentary from the staff of Hong Kong-based public policy think tank Civic Exchange.
Green shipping in the Pear River Delta
Money & momentum – efforts to reduce PRD ship emissions
Veronica Booth, Civic Exchange
April 19, 2012
Good news – momentum is building to reduce ship emissions in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. Last month, Shenzhen Municipal Human Settlements and Environment Commission informally stated that reducing emissions from ship and port activities will be a primary area of focus this year
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Deng Xiaoping eyes China's ecological destrution
China urgently needs emancipated thinking to survive
Su Liu, Civic Exchange
April 13, 2012
China's environment is sick, suffering not just a single, isolated disease but widespread epidemics. This is indisputable. And no matter how thoroughly we analyse individual causes, it is clear that without fixing its ill-fated development model, China will be forever chasing its pollution problem and will never get ahead of it. The country is once again in urgent need of an emancipated mind-set, redefining the concept of development to address today's conditions and to bring order out of chaos.
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Congestion charging
Congestion charging: too much to ask or inevitable?
Anna Beech, Civic Exchange
March 16, 2012
Shenzhen, which trails only Beijing within China in terms of the number of vehicles it has on its streets, recently announced plans to launch a congestion charge in 2016. Shenzhen has 2 million registered vehicles; five years ago it had one million and its maximum capacity is thought to be 2.1 million vehicles. According to Shenzhen’s traffic bureau the city’s vehicle density is the highest in China, with 300 vehicles for every kilometer of road.
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Urban well-being
Indices of well-being: measuring what really matters
Wilson Lau, Civic Exchange
March 07, 2012
People have grown accustomed to believing that the gross domestic product (GDP) is what really matters; that it could be used to demonstrate a society’s well-being. It was, however, never created with this intent. Simply, GDP measures the amount of money that changes hands, but how much we have in our pockets does not adequately tell us how well we are doing, in all the dimensions of our lives.
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HK Financial Secretary cash for shipping emissions reduction
Voluntary ship emissions cutting gets HK Govt cash
Christine Loh, Civic Exchange
February 22, 2012
On 1 February John Tsang, Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary, announced in his Budget a HKD260 million (USD33.3 million) subsidy in the form of reduced harbor and light fees over three years for ships that switch to 0.5 percent sulfur fuel or cleaner. This proposal will be debated by the Hong Kong Legislative Council in March and is expected to pass.
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Battling cadmium contamination of the Longjiang
Cadmium contamination: where is the next vulnerable region?
Su Liu, Civic Exchange
February 08, 2012
The cadmium spill in Guangxi province has been the headlines for a few days now and there could be more to come. With two out of the three main tributaries of the Pearl River (西江和北江，the west and the north tributary Xijiang and Beijiang) now contaminated with cadmium, will the Dongjiang (东江，the east tributary) be next? Many people in the Pearl River basin are very concerned about the current situation in Guangxi but few remember that seven years ago there was an even worse cadmium spill close by, on a section of Beijiang that runs past Shaoguan 韶关市) in Guangdong province.
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The Chinese Grassbird
Call of the wild: managing HK’s newly-discovered bird species
Wilson Lau, Civic Exchange
February 02, 2012
The world’s foremost experts group on birds, the International Ornithologists’ Union, has just confirmed a new species of bird that was discovered on the mountain peaks of Hong Kong. Given the common name Chinese Grassbird, their estimated numbers are few (initial estimates suggests no more than 50-100 pairs in Hong Kong); therefore, the cause for conservation should be great. It might be fortunate that the hill and mountaintop habitats where these birds make their home are largely found within Hong Kong’s country parks network.
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Kwai Chung Container Terminal
Regulating ships in Hong Kong - progress and incentives
Veronica Booth, Civic Exchange
January 25, 2012
The Hong Kong Environmental Protection Department (EPD) recently presented proposals to reduce emissions from vessels to improve air quality in Hong Kong at an Environmental Affairs Panel meeting in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council in December 2011. This is a positive step towards regulation in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region more generally.
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Green student activists at the Canadian International School
We don’t need no education: students trail-blaze green initiatives
Anna Beech, Civic Exchange
January 12, 2012
I recently attended a meeting in a large, airy building with wooden beamed ceilings and a huge Christmas tree in the corner to talk with committee members of a new environmental initiative charged with promoting green living  throughout the organization. With such campaigns as Meatless Mondays, Lights Out Fridays, and a complete ban on the use of plastic bottles, one would think you were talking to a large corporation making its first moves into the sustainability world.
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Electronic road pricing
Political visions of Hong Kong’s urban development
Christine Loh, Civic Exchange
December 28, 2011
The election season for 2012 has already started in Hong Kong. The hot issue is a three-way race for chief executive – the top political post – which is selected by an election committee of 1,200 members, whom are “elected” themselves by a relatively small eligible electorate of about 200,000 people. For anyone to get to the starting line, he or she must get 150 nominations from these 1,200 members. Right now, there are three camps vying to get enough nominations.
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