Hong Kong and Guangdong cooperate to improve regional environmental quality

On 12 December 2019, the Environment Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) and the Department of Industry and Information Technology of Guangdong Province (GDDIIT) held the sixth meeting of the Hong Kong-Guangdong Joint Working Group on Cleaner Production (JWGCP) in Guangzhou to discuss and review the work progress in 2019.

Hong Kong and Guangdong have been jointly promoting cleaner production to tackle environmental pollution in the region. By adopting cleaner production, enterprises can improve their environmental performance and reduce pollutant emissions, in addition to increasing their economic benefits through energy saving.

In compliance with the policy direction of ecological civilisation construction under the Outline Development Plan for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the JWGCP also agreed on the 2020 work plan. It focuses on the continuous promotion of the use of cleaner production technologies and management systems for energy saving by high energy consumption industries, and encourages the adoption of water saving technologies and recycling of wastewater by high water consumption industries.

In addition, both sides will continue to encourage Hong Kong-owned enterprises to undertake cleaner production audits, and support relevant trade and industry associations to carry out trade-specific promotion and publicity activities on controlling volatile organic compounds at source by the enterprises. — Construction+ Online