Lukewarm Response
Unlike other internationalized Asian cities, Hong Kong’s political state creates a sense of ignorance towards sustainable lifestyle. Officially, they answer to China so they don’t have to be vocal about their political standpoint on environmental issues. However, they are a city that has their own government. Yet, their position on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (short for WSSD) raises question on the commitment of Hong Kong on sustainable development. Mottersheadelieves Hong Kong government should work with local NGOs and get them involved internationally. On the contrary, local businesses in Hong Kong are actively involved in sustainable development ( Mottershead, 534). He also suggests NGOs need to be grouped in order to be effective, and the city needs a framework to discuss sustainable development such as ecological modernization (535, 536).
Lack of communication between department
Currently, there is a lack of clear initiative from the government to lead all the other departments. A lack of communication between departments also mean they are all working towards different goals and sometimes they might go against each other (538). Moreover, there was a Sustainable Development Study conducted in 1997 known as SUSDEV 21. However, the study’s primary aid CASET was not very helpful because it was a computer-generated tool, which rated ecology and transportation in Hong Kong both inadequately developed. The author believes the priorities are: minimizing ecological footprint, reduce consumption and waste production. This reflects the significance of my case study in contributing to sustainable development in Hong Kong. The current strategy is as he described, “ad hoc, piecemeal, and reactionary” (542). Mottershead claims developing a Local Agenda 21 (LA21), enforcing anti-pollution legislation, engaging with the public, and working closely with NGOs and businesses will be the most effective way to reconstruct Hong Kong’s attitude towards sustainable development. From my point of view, we can apply this to waste management by keeping a sanitary refuse collection point, raising public’s awareness and providing infrastructure to recycle compost, promoting more food choice labels so when consumers are conscious of their action.
Public’s opinion
Other than the government’s position on sustainable development, its important to investigate the public’s opinion regarding environmental issues as well. Alex Y. Lo’s study Public Discourse in Climate Change in Hong Kong shows there is a divided opinion in Hong Kong regarding climate change. Lo divided their opinion to four categories; pure environmentalism, political pragmatism, popular optimism, fair rationalism. Pure environmentalists are mostly made up of younger and educated population; they believe they need to deal with climate change and are optimistic. Political pragmatists believe the economy and politics of the nation is responsible because they are the ones in power; they don’t believe individuals can make a difference. Popular optimists are similar to political pragmatists in placing responsibility on government, except that they believe the problem will solve itself so they don’t need to worry about it. Fair rationalists places the poor in the center of environmental issue because they believe the poor will need to be sacrificed in order to improve the environment. However, there have been more activists speaking up about environmental issues along with other political and social instabilities. It seems after the Occupy Central movement, advocacy was more encouraged amongst the public sphere. Research from Oxfam shows the public is disappointed with the government’s inability to tackling the problem effectively (Lo, 30).