Guest Comments by Civic Exchange

HONG KONG -- Independent policy think-tank Civic Exchange has released a paper titled Air Quality Impact Assessment of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Judicial Review. This is the second in a series of papers on a landmark case, one of the most important legal disputes relating to the environment in Hong Kong.

“The judicial review brings up a number of important issues in Hong Kong. We hope this paper could facilitate effective public debate since legal arguments and judgments usually are hard for laymen to understand,” said Civic Exchange CEO Christine Loh. 

A significant aspect is that the environmental impact assessment reports should have included a “stand alone analysis” of background air quality in the absence of the projects. The paper's author David Renton, a lawyer, explained, “Only with this background data as a control could decision-makers understand the magnitude of the bridge's impacts on air quality and come to a view as to whether those impacts could be reduced.”

Another important issue raised by the court case is concern about how public health should be taken into account in air-quality assessments, which is not included in the project's environmental-impact assessment report.