Hong Kong will ban high-polluting vehicles and offer subsidies to replace diesel-powered buses and trucks, after 15 years of clean-air measures failed to limit smog responsible for more than 3,000 premature deaths a year.
The government will introduce its new “carrot and stick” approach next month, Christine Loh, undersecretary for environment, said in an interview. She said past incentives weren’t big enough, declining to provide the size of the planned subsidies.
Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying is making air quality a priority as smoggy skies and choking exhaust fumes have turned the city into the world’s most polluted financial center. Air quality has gotten worse since 2007, 10 years after then-Chief Executive Tung Chee-Hwa vowed to clean up pollution in his maiden policy speech.
“When we look at the totality of what we’re going to be pushing out, I think we’ll be among the most aggressive in the world,” Loh said. Leung will announce the new measures during his January policy speech, and reduction in emissions should start by 2014, she said.
Click here to read the story.
