Pearl River Delta Air Quality
The Governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Guangdong Province and Macau Special Administrative Region have teamed up to tackle the regional air pollution problem. Here you can learn about their initiatives, including the establishment of an air quality monitoring network throughout the Pearl River Delta.
Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network
The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Centre established the Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network in 2005. In September 2014, the Environmental Protection Departments in Guangdong Province and HKSAR enhanced the Network with the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau (Macao EPB) and the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (Macao MGB) to release real-time air quality information for the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region. The enhanced Network has been renamed as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao PRD Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, with its geographical coverage increased from 16 to 23 automatic air quality monitoring stations in the Delta. Ten (10) city stations are operated either by the Environmental Protection Monitoring Centres of individual cities in Guangdong or the operation-cum-maintenance agencies commissioned by the State, eight regional stations are operated by the Guangdong Provincial Environmental Monitoring Centre and one, located in Macao, is operated by the Macao MGB. The remaining four are located in Hong Kong and operated by the EPD of Hong Kong.
Goals of the Network
The regional air quality monitoring network aims to:
- provide accurate air quality data to assist the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao in understanding the air quality situation and pollution problems in the PRD region for formulating appropriate control measures.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of air pollution control measures through long-term monitoring.
- Provide the public with information on the air quality of different areas in the region.
Real-time Air Quality information
With a view to providing the public with more comprehensive real-time air quality information, the network releases the concentration levels of various air pollutants once an hour. Furthermore, the network provides the respective air quality indices of the three places: the Macao and Guangdong sides release their Air Quality Index once an hour, while the Hong Kong side releases the Air Quality Health Index once an hour. In addition, the network releases the annual report on the monitoring results and the pollution trend in the PRD region, and reports the quarterly statistical monitoring results.
Tackling Regional Air Pollution
To ensure that you can breathe cleaner air, and the next generation will have a better quality of life, the Governments of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and Guangdong Province have formulated and implemented a number of improvement measures . The two governments have taken various individual measures, including:
Hong Kong
- Implemented various measures under the PRD Regional Air Quality Management Plan and followed up on their progress and results to continuously improve regional air quality.
- Increasing the use of natural gas for power generation.
- Taking forward the new round of Air Quality Objectives review.
- Announcing the first “Hong Kong Roadmap on Popularisation of Electric Vehicles” and “Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035”.
- Formulating control proposals with a view to tightening the VOC content limits of regulated architectural paints before 2024, and extending the control to cleaning products.
Guangdong
- Strengthening the control of non-road mobile machinery emissions.
- Implementation of differentiated management on the VOC emitting industries.
- Enhancement of the differentiated management on the control of industrial furnace.
- Promotion of clean energy conversion in industries such as steel and aluminum.
- Promotion of low carbon conversion in iron and steel industries.