Hong Kong's Environmental Protection Department has laid out its plans for implementing Clean Development Mechanism projects.
According to the EPD, the "Arrangements for the Implementation of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) Projects in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region" aim to facilitate the commissioning of CDM projects in Hong Kong and have been drawn up in accordance with the principles of "One Country, Two Systems" and the relevant provisions of the Basic Law, following consultation between the National Development and Reform Commission and EPD.
A spokesman for EPD stated that the implementation arrangements set out the specific process and procedures for Hong Kong companies to collaborate with foreign institutions to conduct CDM projects in Hong Kong. These projects will help further reduce Hong Kong's greenhouse gas emissions, support the sustainable development goal, and also contribute to achieving the ultimate objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.
China is a party to the Convention and the Kyoto Protocol, and under that framework Hong Kong is required to work jointly with the mainland to fulfill the obligations imposed upon parties not included in Annex I to the Convention. CDM is a mechanism under which Parties included in Annex I to the Convention can fulfill part of their greenhouse gas reduction obligations through cooperation with non-Annex I Parties on project activities. Its aim is to assist Non-Annex I Parties in achieving sustainable development and in contributing to the realization of the ultimate objective of the Convention, and to assist Annex I Parties in achieving compliance with their quantified greenhouse gas emission limitation and reduction commitments.
