striking a balance between urban development and environmental
Post on 11-Dec-2016
216 Views
Preview:
TRANSCRIPT
Page 1 of 17
Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency - Symposium 2015 Strategic management of megatrends to achieve sustained success
Striking a balance between urban development and environmental conservation
Speech by Mr. Wilson Fung,
Executive Director, Corporate Development Airport Authority Hong Kong
Ladies and gentlemen,
Many thanks for inviting me today to speak on a subject that is of such great
relevance to Hong Kong; and that is – How we could strike a fine balance
between urban development and environmental conservation. This is
coincidentally a topic of particular relevance to the Airport Authority, as we are
about to embark upon one of the largest single infrastructural projects in Hong
Kong’s history against a backdrop of vigorous public debate as to how such a
balance could be struck.
Rather than diving into the details of this debate, I would first like to walk you
down memory lane back to some twenty years ago, to revisit the discussions and
the ultimate decision to move our airport from the bustling Kowloon City to the
relatively remote and isolated location at Chek Lap Kok.
I still remember vividly the unforgettable experience every time I flew into Kai
Tak - the aircraft always appeared to be approaching uncomfortably close to the
Lion Rock, before banking sharply to the right above Kowloon Tong, almost
Page 2 of 17
scraping the laundry on the roofs of the tenement buildings of Kowloon City
before taxiing out over Victoria Harbour.
Exciting for air travellers though that might be, it was much less so for the
hundreds and thousands of city residents to whom the roars of the earlier
generations of jet aircraft posed a constant disturbance. The Kai Tak
International Airport, as I remembered it, was developed from an old military
airstrip. Circumstances were such that its rapid development allowed relatively
limited consideration to the environmental impact that it created. Kowloon City
also grew symbiotically with the airport and, I must say, the level of tolerance of
people living directly beneath the flight path was quite beyond the realm of our
imagination today. The notion of “striking a balance” did not feature
prominently on the agenda of public discourse then.
Page 3 of 17
As the history goes, Kai Tak very soon ran into a problem similar to the one we
face today at Chek Lap Kok – capacity crunch. In the early 1990s, Kai Tak was
operating very close to its design capacity, and the demand for flights into and
out of Hong Kong has expanded rapidly as our economy continued to grow.
Page 4 of 17
After repeated rounds of policy review and site selection, Chek Lap Kok was
eventually chosen as the site to develop a new two-runway airport, symbolised
by Sir Norman Foster’s iconic and, since then, much emulated terminal design.
With the new infrastructure in place, HK regained its capability to meet the ever
expanding demand for air travel. The new airport has also positioned Hong
Kong as an efficient, spectacular and thoroughly modern aviation hub for China
and South East Asia.
However, what is less well known is that under the auspices of the New Airport
Master Plan, the environmental impacts of this strategic project had been
carefully mapped, mitigated and compensated by the Airport Authority under
the watchful eyes of the Environmental Protection Department. All these were
done on a voluntary basis as they preceded the enactment of the Environmental
Impact Assessment Ordinance.
Page 5 of 17
The re-profiling of Chek Lap Kok Island and the reclamation of the surrounding
waters impacted two species of special conservation concern – the Romer’s Tree
Frog and the Chinese White Dolphin. The impacts on these two species were
addressed through a successful relocation of tree frogs to several well-protected
sites around Hong Kong, and of the dolphin, by extensive monitoring and careful
management of the reclamation process and the subsequent designation of Sha
Chau as a Marine Park to ensure that one of the dolphins’ key breeding grounds
in Hong Kong waters was protected.
Page 6 of 17
Other less well known environmental protection measures undertaken by the
Airport Authority in association with the project included mangrove planting on
the Tai O saltpans, and tree planting on Lantau.
Page 7 of 17
While these measures addressed the ecological concerns associated with the
reclamation, there were more environmental innovation in the design of the
airport itself:
Our triple water system combines Hong Kong’s world-leading expertise in
using seawater for cooling and flushing; as well as the use of reclaimed water
for irrigation of landscaped areas throughout the airport to minimize our
potable water consumption;
Again, leveraging the best of Hong Kong’s indigenous expertise, the extension
of the city’s world class network of buses, ferries and of course the Airport
Express Line, ensures that over 95% of airport staff and 60% of all passengers
travel to and from the airport by public transport;
Page 8 of 17
Furthermore, HKIA’s signature “big window” terminal design allows the
maximum use of natural light with the minimum of solar heat gain, thereby
keeping our energy consumption firmly in check. This design is currently
being employed even more widely and in a much more advanced fashion in
the design of our soon-to-be-commissioned Midfield Concourse.
It goes without saying that the greatest benefit of moving from downtown
Kowloon to the more remote and largely unpopulated North Lantau has
dramatically improved the quality of life for hundreds and thousands of urban
residents under the flight path.
However, the Airport Authority has not rested on its laurels, but rather has built
on these foundations to find new and better ways to reduce the environmental
impacts that are typical of a busy airport.
Page 9 of 17
In 2008, we conducted our first audit of Airport Authority’s carbon emissions
and, a year later, those of our airport business partners. In 2010, the entire
airport community made a public pledge to reduce carbon intensity by 25%
by 2015. This programme has been a great success, and we are firmly on
course to achieve one of the city’s most ambitious and wide-reaching carbon
reduction targets.
As part and parcel of our overall strategy in improving our energy efficiency,
we also launched an ambitious programme in 2009 to replace over 100,000
traditional lights with LEDs throughout the Terminal Building. This was by far
the largest single LED replacement project in Asia. It also played a crucial role
in establishing the market for LED lighting at a time when the technology was
only just beginning to find acceptance in Hong Kong.
Page 10 of 17
The above examples serve to illustrate two very important lessons we have
learned:-
First, we fully appreciate that multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential to
achieving significant environmental improvements. To put it more simply, we
need to work together with our business partners. As the airport operator, we
have an undeniable responsibility to take the lead. But it is worthwhile to note
that Airport Authority cannot on its own achieve environmental targets to any
significant extent. In the case of the carbon reduction program, over 40% of the
total carbon reductions achieved under the pledge were actually contributed by
our business partners.
Secondly, we cannot expect commercial enterprises to undertake green projects
solely for the sake of being green. What we learned is that a sound business case
is the best guarantee that our green efforts and initiatives are sustained in the
Page 11 of 17
long run. The LED replacement programme is one good example that fully
demonstrates that we could ultimately save money by pursuing a green agenda.
With the above green credentials, I hope I have impressed upon you that the
Airport Authority has not suddenly become “green” only when the Third Runway
System project appeared on the horizon. Rather, our ongoing commitment to
minimize our environmental footprint is fully integrated into our management
agenda.
2012 was a landmark for the Airport Authority. In March that year, the
Government approved our Masterplan 2030, and instructed Airport Authority to
proceed with the planning of the Third Runway System project. Following that,
work commenced on the EIA study, but admittedly under a very different
Page 12 of 17
environment from that of the original development of the airport some 20 years
back.
Hong Kong had continued to grow. And along with the rising population and
maturing economy came the public expectation that our environment and
quality of life should be protected. As a result, many statutory processes, such as
EIAs and Town Planning Board Applications for major housing and development
projects have routinely faced well-organised challenges from the community.
We fully recognise these changing public expectations and, in response, through
the preparation of the MP2030, we conducted the most comprehensive public
consultations ever on a development project. This involved several hundreds of
meetings and public fora to allow all relevant stakeholder groups to air their
views – NGOs, District Councils, legislators, community groups and the media, to
name but a few. These engagement efforts have helped Airport Authority to
better understand the most important concerns of the public.
Another major change since the building of Chek Lap Kok airport was of course
the enactment of the EIA Ordinance in 1998, which has since provided a
Page 13 of 17
statutory process under which proponents of major projects must conduct an
EIA study and issue a report that meets the specific requirements of the
Environmental Protection Department, while giving the public the opportunity
to express their views.
Vigorous though the debate over the 3RS has been, it is in no way extraordinary
if one looks elsewhere in the world. Cities such as London, Munich and Sydney
have taken many years to determine a way forward when the increasing demand
for aviation appears to conflict with the environmental concerns.
Closer to home, Osaka, Seoul and Singapore have followed the same path as Hong
Kong in moving their airports out of the city and into the sea to find more space
and reduce the impacts on urban residents. The problem is that the further you
move an airport from the city, the more likely you are to encroach upon
ecologically-sensitive habitats and species of conservation concern.
Page 14 of 17
Hong Kong’s Statutory EIA framework indeed serves as a useful tool to enable a
wide range of stakeholders to contribute to finding the best way forward.
First, the EIA process reminds the Government that in determining the need for a
major development project, especially in as densely populated a city as Hong
Kong, that economic considerations alone are not sufficient to justify
development.
Secondly, it provides the project proponent with a clearly articulated process
within which to find the approach with the smallest environmental impact, and
Page 15 of 17
also the motivation to do this well, as we cannot take it for granted that all
projects would necessarily be approved.
Indeed, Airport Authority’s combined experience in adopting best practice from
other airports, building our environmental capacity over the last 18 years, and
the knowledge of the public concerns expressed through the 2030 Masterplan
engagement exercise, have provided a solid foundation on which to prepare
what has subsequently been acknowledged as the most comprehensive EIA
study ever conducted in Hong Kong.
If you will allow me to blow a few trumpets, the ground-breaking elements in the
3RS EIA include:
1. For the first time that three simultaneous study approaches (i.e. land, sea
and submarine-based methods) were adopted to assess the potential
impacts on Chinese White Dolphin more accurately than ever before.
2. The first ever health impact assessment in a Hong Kong EIA (focusing on
air quality and noise)
3. The first proposed use of deep cement mixing technology on a massive
scale for reclamation in order to minimize construction-phase
disturbance to the marine ecosystem.
4. The proposed establishment of the largest marine park in Hong Kong, the
size of which equals to all of the existing marine parks in Hong Kong
combined.
Page 16 of 17
It goes without saying that the EIA process provides the opportunity for the
public to express their views. These are generally objections raised either
directly by the environmental NGOs or by members of the public. The rise of
social media in recent years has significantly tilted the balance, resulting in the
dramatic increase in the volume of objections that have to be handled by the
authorities.
Ultimately, what all this means is that it is not really a question of how AA could
successfully prove that our proposed development will not result in any
unacceptable environmental impacts. This is a tall order, bordering on a
“Mission Impossible”. On the other hand, it is equally misguided to believe that
economic development is so important to us and to our future generations that
we could afford to allow it to ride roughshod over all other considerations. As
we see it, the balance between environment conservation and urban
development is struck through an open and formally structured collective
decision making process to which the entire community subscribes.
Page 17 of 17
In the case of the Third Runway System, we have faithfully followed this process;
and, to the extent possible, undertaken the best possible measures in mitigating
all the environmental impacts that our proposed development brings; we are
very glad to have obtained our Environmental Permit late last year after two
years of very intensive research work.
This is of course not the end of the “balancing” story. As you will all be aware,
EPD’s decision in granting the EP to AA is currently subject to two judicial
reviews. The final decision will of cause be determined by the courts. But I
naturally look forward to a favourable outcome as we believe that the 3RS
project, after having taken into account considerations from different
perspectives, is indeed in the overall best interest of the whole community, and
that is what “striking a balance” should, ultimately, be about.
On this note, I would like to thank HKQAA for inviting me to speak to you today
and I look forward to further exchanges with you during the panel discussions.
Thank you.
top related