Beginning in June 2019, the Council for Sustainable Development conducted a three-month long bottom-up public engagement for long-term decarbonization strategy of Hong Kong. The public could express their views via the online views collection form.

Why decarbonize? Why do we need to act now? In the regional forum, Professor Wing-mo Leung presented scientific evidence to prove the phenomena and adverse impacts of climate change in multiple facets. The future is in our hands, climate change is an urgent matter of environmental justice, a matter of life and death. We need to act before it becomes irreversible. A Stanford study shows that progressive climate action only costs 0.1% of GDP but inaction may lead to 30% decrease in global economic output (Burke, Davis & Diffenbaugh, 2018).

As a youth member at the Council for Sustainable Development, I reflected on how to enhance youth participation in the bottom-up public engagement process. The forums and focus groups were organised for different districts, selected professional bodies and institutions, without a specific focus on youths. In view of such, I proposed to the Council Secretariat to organise an additional youth forum on long-term decarbonisation strategy. With support from secretariat staff and programme team from HKU, we organised a series of carbon comparison activities and discussion groups in the two-hour session. I began the session with an introduction of local and global impacts of climate change and touched upon issues including climate justice, SDGs and energy transition. From the 20+ participating youths, we are pleased to collect a wide variety of genuine and innovative ideas on decarbonisation, such as developing IA technology to monitor density in rooms and auto-adjust room temperature, enhancing investment in waste-to-energy technology for cleaner electricity, increasing cycling network and walkability, providing financial incentives for low-carbon meals, setting a clothing index for dressing in workplace.

After analysing views from the public, corporate and NGOs, the Report on the Public Engagement on Long-term Decarbonisation Strategy of Hong Kong was released on 13 November, 2020. Based on 70,000+ views collected over the course public engagement exercise during 2019-2020, the Council for Sustainable Development presents a list of 55 recommendations under 6 overarching objectives:

1. Driving transformative societal change towards low-carbon lifestyles
2. Accelerating the shift to zero carbon energy
3. Promoting a sustainable built environment
4. Governing transitions toward low-carbon transport systems
5. Unlocking green and sustainable finance potential for low-carbon transition
6. Steering innovations in climate change mitigation, adaptation and resilience

I hope the government would seriously consider these recommendations with the ambition of bringing Hong Kong to achieve net zero by 2050. Welcome any thoughts and discussion points!

Many have told me that it is almost impossible to make changes in the institution because of the existing bureaucracies. But I believe that no matter how rigid a system is, there are leeways to making changes. Organising one youth forum is of course, insignificant, but it is a beginning to taking youth’s opinions more seriously. It is a form of advocacy within the boundaries and limits. The climate is urgently calling on us to take proactive moves. We must always equip ourselves and deliver concrete actions when windows of opportunities open up.