MCLC: pollution reports on Guangdong kept from public

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: pollution reports on Guangdong kept from public
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Source: SCMP (7/14/14):
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1553625/hong-kong-funded-pollution-r
eports-guangdong-kept-public

Hong Kong-funded pollution reports on Guangdong kept from public
By Cheung Chi-fai and Mimi Lau in Guangzhou

Two Hong Kong-funded air pollution studies in the Pearl River Delta region
have not been fully disclosed to the public because Guangdong authorities
object to releasing "confidential information" in them, the Hong Kong
government has admitted.

The 2½ projects were commissioned in 2007 to study the formation of
photochemical smog, or ozone pollution, and industrial sources of air
pollution in the region.

Costing HK$10 million each, both studies were completed and filed to the
commissioning body, the Environmental Protection Department, in June 2011.

But it was only in May this year that the department quietly uploaded the
summary reports, of 11 and 15 pages, to its website.
The reports provided the scientific basis for setting new cross-border
targets in emission cuts for next year and 2020, and for enhancing an
air-quality monitoring network, a department spokesman said.

But Hong Kong had a binding agreement with Guangdong not to release the
reports, which contained unspecified sensitive information, he said.

"The two studies were conducted within the region, which contained
confidential information collected in the economic zone of [the Pearl
River Delta]. Our Guangdong counterparts considered it inappropriate to
disclose such information."

He said the province's role in the studies was only providing back-up and
technical support, including "professional input" on selecting sample
sites.

The embargo decision was in stark contrast to the complete disclosure in
2002 of an unprecedented regional air-quality report, including its
technical annexes.

That report formed the basis on which the first cross-border
emission-reduction targets were set.

A spokesman for the Guangdong Environmental Protection Bureau insisted the
embargo was necessary as the reports had "some data about some
enterprises. We have made a simplified version of what the public needs to
know about it."

In Hong Kong, Democratic Party lawmaker Wu Chi-wai said there was no
justification for holding back the reports, which were already three years
old.

"Everything about the mainland is confidential or sensitive. If that's the
case, we won't be able to achieve anything on anything involving the
mainland," he said.

Wu said that without the full report, it would be difficult to monitor
whether the government had made the right policy decisions or measures.

Green Power chief executive Dr Man Chi-sum said Hong Kong and Guangdong
might be overreacting about the reports.

"We are not talking about emissions from a particular power plant that we
want to hold responsible," he said. "We want more about the trends."

Man noted that as the mainland stepped up its fight against pollution,
many cities that once saw air-quality data as highly confidential were now
willing to reveal their monitoring data, even on a real-time basis.

The ozone study involved collecting samples of volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) at 84 locations in the delta region via eight measurements from
September 2008 to December 2009.

VOCs constitute a smog-inducing pollutant that reacts with nitrogen
dioxides in the air to form ozone.

In the other study, on industrial pollution sources, data was gathered
from more than 150 selected enterprises about their production,
operational processes and airborne emissions.