By Dave Dore, Guo Peiyuan, Anna-Sterre Nette, Jiali An

Sponsored by ADM Capital Foundation and Civic Exchange, “The Asia Water Project” is a unique collaborative research that offers information about

Asia’s growing water crisis and fosters dialogue to encourage better water management.

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The Pearl River Delta (PRD) in southern China is one of the leading economies and a major manufacturing center of the country. The Chinese government hopes that the manufacturing in Guangdong, combined with the booming economy and western influences in Hong Kong, will create an economic gateway attracting foreign capitals through to mainland China. However, the PRD is notoriously polluted, with sewage and industrial waste treatment facilities failing to keep pace with the growth in population and industry in the area. In addition, the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou in November 2010 and the restructuring of HK’s economy since the early 1980s has substantially changed both the nature of the environmental problems and the burden of tackling these problems in the territory. This raised concerns among local environmental managers and researchers over the impacts of cross-border pollution problems since the early 1990s.

With this in mind, APIEL will conduct a field exercise unit in collaboration with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and Sun Yat-sen University (Guangzhou, China) to study Environmental sustainability and Management in HK toward trans-boundary and international co-operation. After intensive workshop session in HK, students will visit PRD Region, namely the Guangdong Development District, wastewater treatment plant and mangrove forest in Guangzhou, etc. Understanding of trans-boundary and interdisciplinary issues at PRD is expected through this field exercise.

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Asia Water Project commissioned the 150-page Responsible Research report, targeting the investor community. The report, which will be free to download, identifies key factors that will impact water supplies in China. These bring both risks and opportunities to investors and companies in variety of sectors.

The speakers for the event would be from the Asia Water Project, Responsible Research, SynTao, an Asian Corporate who is dealing with its own water issues, and an investor in the water sector.

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Independent public policy think tank Civic Exchange noted the Financial Secretary’s introduction of incentives to clean up roadside pollution in the 2010-2011 Budget, but remains concerned that unless mandatory measures requiring the worst polluters to clean up are adopted, these incentives will be slow to deliver pollution reductions, and the threat to public health will remain unacceptably high.

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“The Asia Water Project: China”, sponsored by Civic Exchange and ADM Capital Foundation, is a unique collaborative research and web portal offering access to information about China’s growing water crisis and fostering dialogue to encourage better water management.

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Sponsored by ADM Capital Foundation and Civic Exchange, “The Asia Water Project” (AWP) is a unique collaborative research and web portal that offers information about Asia’s growing water crisis and fosters dialogue to encourage better water management. The initial focus of this project is on China.

Click to read the press release.

By Civic Exchange

Since constitutional development has not progressed since 2004, many of Civic Exchange’s views submitted earlier in response to various Task Force reports and the 2007 Green Paper remain relevant. We do not intend to repeat them but would like to highlight three issues.

By Civic Exchange

To continue the meeting on 28-Jan regarding the upcoming 2010-2011 budget, Civic Exchange would like to make an additional point about upgrading of the franchised bus fleet.

Hong Kong and other major cities around the world are looking at the potential for electric vehicles (EVs) to provide solutions to urban transport that are low carbon, low pollution, and high quality. This roundtable workshop aimed to bring together main players in Hong Kong’s EV community to focus on what supporting hard and soft infrastructures are necessary to roll out and accelerate the adoption of EVs in Hong Kong. Katherine Choi from the HKSAR Government has discussed the government’s implementation plans and approach; other stakeholders have briefed each other on the possible roles they could play in the EV transformation in Hong Kong; Civic Exchange has introduced the upcoming C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group conference in Hong Kong from 5–6 November 2010, in which one of the main focuses of the 40 international member cities will be EVs.

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ORGANIZERS

The Australian Chamber of Commerce is supporting the Hong Kong Business Coalition on the Environment (BCE), InterCham, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and Civic Exchange to organize a Post-COP15 breakfast session on Thursday, 28 January 2010.

PROGRAMME

This session will take the form of an address by Mr Simon Reddy, Executive Director of C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group focusing on the way forward for global efforts in managing climate change.

The second part of this important session will be a panel discussion with Hong Kong delegates who were at the COP15 meeting in December 2009.

Our Panel Moderator is Christine Loh, Chief Executive, Civic Exchange and she will be joined by Dr Jeanne Ng, Environmental Director – Group Affairs, CLP Holdings and Dr Glenn Frommer, Head of Sustainability, MTR Corporation who will share their insights on possible directions for Hong Kong in carbon reduction and developing a low carbon economy.

Despite the lack of a binding global carbon framework at COP15, global and local efforts are continuing on finding a more satisfactory solution for managing climate change. Through this session, the BCE aims to forge common understanding and unite supporters in the call for actions by the government and stakeholders.

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