The Secretary for Environment and Ecology, Mr Tse Chin-wan attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Ministerial Meeting (EMM) held in Lima, Peru on August 15 and 16 (Peru time).
Mr Tse attended the EMM on August 15 afternoon (Peru time). He discussed topics such as the promotion of energy transition in the region with energy ministers or their representatives from APEC member economies. He said during the discussion session that the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has set "net-zero electricity generation" as one of the four decarbonisation strategies in the Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050. The HKSAR Government has set a target to cease using coal for daily electricity generation before 2035 and increase the share of usage of zero-carbon energy in electricity generation to around 60 per cent to 70 per cent by 2035.
Mr Tse also pointed out that the HKSAR Government will launch the Pilot Scheme on Building-Integrated Photovoltaics to explore photovoltaic technology applications on the facades of government buildings. In addition to public organisations, the HKSAR Government has also created favorable conditions to encourage the private sector to develop renewable energy. One of the measures is the Feed-in Tariff Scheme launched in 2018. The Scheme has approved 25 500 applications and connected to the power grids. It is estimated that over 300 million kilowatt hour of electricity can be generated each year through the approved system, which is sufficient to meet the electricity demand of about 122 000 households.
Mr Tse continued to participate in the EMM on August 16 (Peru time) to share with other APEC member economies how the HKSAR Government promotes the development of hydrogen energy. He said that hydrogen energy is regarded as a low-carbon energy with development potential, and countries around the world are actively promoting the development of the hydrogen energy industry. To prepare for opportunities presented by the development of hydrogen energy, the HKSAR Government announced the Strategy of Hydrogen Development in Hong Kong (the Strategy) in June this year.
Mr Tse pointed out that Hong Kong is an international city and financial centre and can become a demonstration platform for hydrogen technologies to assist the development of the hydrogen industry in different regions. Hong Kong still has to face six areas of technical challenges of safety, suitable technologies, infrastructure, cost effectiveness, capacity building and public acceptance. The Strategy sets out the four major strategies, to address the technical challenges as well as the unique situation of Hong Kong, of improving legislations, establishing standards, aligning with the market, and advancing with prudence to create an environment conducive to the development of hydrogen energy in Hong Kong in a prudent and orderly manner.
During the EMM, Mr Tse had bilateral meetings with representatives from Peru, Singapore and Vietnam respectively to exchange views on issues such as energy transition, decarbonisation and hydrogen development. In addition, Mr Tse had a side meeting with the Deputy Director of the National Energy Administration, Mr Ren Jingdong, to exchange views on strengthening regional co-operation on August 15 (Peru time).
Mr Tse left Peru on August 17 (Peru time) and will arrive in Hong Kong on Monday afternoon (August 19, Hong Kong time).
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