The EPD works closely with other government departments and stakeholders to promote sustainable development and build consideration of the environment into the Hong Kong SAR's decision-making process.

Examples of Strategic Environmental Assessment in Hong Kong

Input on Major Policies and Strategies

All policy submissions to the Executive Council that have major environmental consequences are required to include an environmental implications paragraph. The same requirement applies to submissions made to the Public Works Sub-committee of the Legislative Council, which approves funding for public works projects. The purpose is to help integrate environmental considerations into the decision-making process. The EPD reviews these paragraphs. In 2002, we reviewed more than 190 submissions.

Strategic developments and policies are subject to further levels of assessment. A broad assessment is done using sustainability indicators, which the EPD and other concerned departments helped to develop in 2001. The environment is one of several considerations. The Sustainable Development Unit, which was set up by the government in 2001, oversees these assessments. On another level, the EPD directly manages strategic environmental assessments, which look in detail at the environmental impacts of specific policies and strategies. We started putting these assessments on our website in 2002 to provide the public with more access to information. The first three strategic environmental assessments to be placed on the website were the Territorial Development Strategy Review, the Third Comprehensive Transport Study and the Second Railway Development Study.

Regional Work

A major conference on strategic environmental assessments was held for officials and experts from Hong Kong and the Mainland in December. Participants shared experiences and discussed how these assessments can be applied. The EPD also demonstrated how we use the Internet to increase transparency in our work.

Hong Kong co-operates with Guangdong in the Joint Working Group on Sustainable Development and Environmental Protection and its related special panels. The Joint Working Group completed a report on regional air pollution in April 2002. The two sides have agreed on targets for reducing air pollution by 2010.

On water pollution control, Hong Kong and Guangdong are working together to implement a joint programme to clean up Deep Bay, draw up a water pollution control strategy for Mirs Bay and develop a numerical water quality model for the Pearl River Estuary . Hong Kong is also liaising with the State Oceanic Administration (SOA) on the plan for Hong Kong's participation in the National Marine Environmental Monitoring Network after completing the preparation work at the technical level.

Greening Government

Since 2000, all government departments and bureaux have been required to produce annual reports on the environmental performance of their policies and actions. The first two batches of these reports were reviewed by a consultant in 2002 to identify areas of strength and weakness in existing environmental reporting practices and to highlight best practices. The review led to the development of a benchmarking tool to help bureaux and departments improve the quality of their environmental performance reports.