Last month, we flew to Toronto and plunged into a world, exacerbated by wind chill, of 35 degrees Celsius below zero. This record temperature resulted from the weakening of circumpolar currents that partially block the southward movement of Arctic air masses. Climate change warms the polar region and lowers the temperature gradients driving the currents.
Hong Kong is fortunate in suffering no ice and little fire. But global warming increases the solar energy absorbed by the western Pacific Ocean and raises the strength of typhoons, which surely Hong Kong cares about.
Planet Earth needs desperately to fight climate change, and Hong Kong needs to do more. Over 70 carbon pricing schemes are in force across the globe, notably in mainland China, but the special administrative region governments have yet to set up compliance carbon markets.
Meta-analysis has shown that implementation of carbon tax has yielded immediate and substantial reductions in emissions, even where taxes are restrained and far from burdensome to consumers. It seems that, contrary to popular belief, businesses’ dependence on fossil fuel consumption can be quite elastic, especially when price is a factor.
Perhaps it’s time for the Hong Kong government to study introducing carbon taxes and emission trading legislation?
