Background

This Invitation for Response (IR) Document seeks to invite interested individuals and organisations to give their views and comments on achieving energy saving and enhancing energy efficiency in buildings that will lead ways to combating climate change. The public engagement exercise aims to facilitate the exchange of ideas on the concerns, incentives and possible action plans for the demand-side management in electricity consumption and carbon intensity reduction.

Some 90% of Hong Kong's electricity is consumed in buildings and buildings alone account for about 60% of Hong Kong's greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission. The Council for Sustainable Development (SDC) recognised that buildings are an important area for climate change mitigation actions and proposed to focus strategically on four core building user groups, i.e. household, office, retail and catering, in order to maximise building energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions.

Climate Change, Energy Consumption, Greenhouse Gases Emission and You

Climate change in its simplest term refers to changes of climate that are attributed directly or indirectly to human activities. Such changes are usually measured or noticed in the long term variations of the weather conditions, e.g. temperature, precipitation and wind patterns. In Hong Kong, meteorological observations in the past century reveal that there is a long term increasing trend in the city's average temperature and annual rainfall. The annual number of hot days/nights and annual rainfall are expected to increase over the coming decades. There will also be more occurrence of extreme weather.

Changes in climate will inevitably affect where and how people, plants and animals live, such as impacts on food production, accessibility and use of fresh water, and health risks. To alleviate climate change and its related impacts, both supply-side and demand-side management measures should be adopted. Innovations of renewable energy should be actively explored while every Earth citizen should revamp our conventional ways of living and pursue higher energy efficiency resulting in reduction in carbon emissions. Tackling climate change from the demand side will help achieve the higher goal of sustainability: saving energy means saving natural resources, reducing carbon emissions and saving costs.

Hong Kong Context

In 2008, Hong Kong's GHGs emission per capita were about six tonnes. In terms of sectoral contribution, electricity generation accounted for about 67% of our total emissions (2008 figure), whereas transport sector accounted for 18% and waste for about 5%. Electricity consumption per capita in Hong Kong has been continuously increasing and figures in 2008 showed that 89% of our city's electricity is consumed in buildings. In other words, buildings account for about 60% of Hong Kong's GHGs emission. These lay down a very strong case for targeting the four building user groups for territory-wide reductions in energy consumption and carbon emissions.

The Engagement Process

The SDC has identified household, office, retail and catering as the four core building user groups with the aim to allow for a more focused discussion on how each group can maximise energy efficiency and minimise carbon emissions in building uses. These four groups cover a wide spectrum of the general public as well as practitioners in the area of estate management and trades.

To effectively channel in views from the stakeholders and the public, the engagement programme involves different activities. A series of informal meetings were arranged to pick the brains of members of the SDC and its sub-committee in the early stage; five focus group meetings were arranged in April and May 2011 to solicit views and concerns from the target building user groups. These initial findings and research on local and overseas experience have formed the basis of this IR Document to facilitate informed and structured discussions among the stakeholders in the building user groups as well as in the wider community.

The public engagement process will take place from August to December 2011, five regional forums will be carried out to gauge public's ideas on possible incentives, concerns and actions in energy saving and energy efficiency in building related activities.

To help promote the engagement activities, more than 60 organisations would join the engagement programme as Supporting Organisations. These organisations, including tertiary institutions, research institutions, green groups, government and non-governmental organisations, as well as other business-related and professional organisations, are engaged to help disseminate invitation to the engagement exercise.

What have been in place already?

Existing measures for the promotion and implementation of energy efficiency in buildings can be discussed in four broad areas: regulation, financial assistance, incentive scheme and government leading by example.

Regulation currently mandated by the Government includes:

Financial assistance is another form of support offered by the Government with the aim to speed up the implementation of energy saving measures. Buildings Energy Efficiency Funding Schemes were launched in 2009 to provide financial support to building owners to conduct energy-cum-carbon audit as well as to conduct energy efficiency improvement projects that enhance buildings energy efficiency, and thus reduce carbon emissions from building related activities.

There are also programmes initiated by the Government and other related organisations with the aim to raise awareness of and facilitate actions in energy saving and carbon reduction. Some of these examples include Hong Kong Awards for Environmental Excellence, “Green Hong Kong · Carbon Audit” campaign, and various online tools such as carbon calculators and carbon audit toolkits to enable the public to get familiar with the concept of energy consumption and carbon reduction.

Questions for Thoughts

Climate change and its related issues may be too broad and abstract to comprehend for most of us. Relating the topic with energy efficiency, energy saving and cost saving would help lay down the context for solid actions and implementation. We hope that the proposed actions may help trigger more thoughts from everyone in the society so that public discussion can be fruitful taking into account the considerations of people from all walks of life. A list of questions is proposed to stimulate further discussion with a view to building consensus on the way forward for alleviating climate change through improving the efficiency of energy use in buildings. The key questions are listed below:

Climate Change And You (i) What does climate change mean to you? (ii) Do you think you can contribute to the Government’s proposed target of reducing Hong Kong’s carbon intensity by 50%-60% in 2020 as compared with the 2005 level? If yes, what measures would you take? If no, why not? Systemic Enhancement (i) To consider tightening the Building Energy Code (BEC) Do you agree that we should tighten the energy efficiency standards for the four building services installations (lighting, air conditioning, electrical and lift & escalator) covered by the BEC? Do you think that the BEC should cover other types of building services installations? If yes, what are they? (ii) To consider providing recognition for buildings achieving high energy efficiency Do you think energy-efficient buildings should be recognised by the Government or other institutions through award/labelling scheme? What kind of elements (e.g. estimated/actual energy performance, housekeeping practices, innovative measures etc.) should be included in the assessment?

(iii) To explore extension of the application of the Mandatory Energy Efficiency Labelling Scheme (MEELS) Do you agree that we should introduce more electrical appliances under the MEELS? Will you consider installing energy-efficient electrical appliances even if their price may be higher than the energy-inefficient ones? If yes, why? If no, why not? (iv) To consider tightening up the energy efficiency grading levels for room air conditioners and refrigerators under the MEELS Do you think there is a need to tighten up/revisit the grading levels under the MEELS, particularly for room air conditioners and refrigerators which consume a considerable amount of electricity? (v) To explore phasing out energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs Do you think we should restrict the supply of energy-inefficient incandescent light bulbs in Hong Kong as in some overseas jurisdictions? Are you using energy-efficient light bulbs at your home or workplace? If yes, what’s the result? If no, why not? (vi) To explore phasing out energy-inefficient electrical installations/appliances Should we consider imposing minimum energy performance standards for electrical appliances? If yes, on what type of electrical appliances?

Facilitation Of Behaviour Change (i) Energy/Carbon audit Has carbon audit been conducted in your own housing estate/workplace? Have you ever considered conducting carbon audit in any premises/building? If yes, what were your considerations? If no, why not and what are the obstacles? Do you want to understand more about the carbon emission level in your building and possible ways to reduce energy consumption? Is energy/carbon audit conducive to identification/implementation of appropriate energy saving measures? What kind of assistance or incentive should be available from the Government or other organisations to facilitate carbon audits? Which kind of organisation(s) should take the lead in conducting energy/carbon audit, e.g. government departments/large corporations/listed companies/small and medium enterprises etc.?

(ii) Better understanding of your energy consumption What kind of information should be provided in our electricity bills? What kind of presentation style do you prefer? (iii) More use of energy efficiency management systems (EMS) How should we promote the adoption of EMS/tools/technologies in buildings? What kind of incentives should be provided for the developers/property management companies etc. to adopt EMS in buildings? (iv) Promote adoption of energy-efficient electrical appliances among the trades Do you think that there should be more investment on research & development (R&D) for energy-efficient electrical appliances for local trade use? What would be the best way to provide information on R&D and the marketing of such electrical appliances for you? (v) Electricity tariff structure review Do you think the restructuring of electricity tariff can facilitate behaviour change and achieve energy saving?