Asia/Pacific News
Call for Shore Power in Hong Kong
Hong Kong's new Kai Tak cruise terminal will make the already-poor air quality in Hong Kong worse without measures to reduce ship pollution, Kwong Sum Yin, chief executive officer of Clean Air Network writes in the South China Morning Post.
The government plans to require ships to switch to fuel with 0.5 percent sulfur content while at berth, but Kwong said using onshore power facilities would eliminate pollutant emission at the port altogether.
Hong Kong's chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, said earlier this year that the government will seek funding for such shore power facilities at the terminal, but officials say a study on the project will not be completed until next year.
Clean Air Network found that concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air at the Tsim Sha Tsui cruise terminal were 44 micrograms per cubic metre, 76 percent higher than the World Health Organisation's "safe level."
"Tourism may bring economic growth to the city, but the flip side is that the air pollution that comes with all these benefits will raise medical costs and generate other public health expenses," Kwong wrote.
"For Hong Kong to fully capitalise on this new cruise terminal, the government needs to construct onshore power facilities at once."
Earlier this month the Port of Long Beach approved funding for the demonstration of a "sock on a stack" emissions control system that could potentially allow every vessel calling at the port, not just those retrofitted to use shore power, to reduce their at berth emissions.
