Sustainable Northern metropolis

A Carbon-neutral Northern Metropolis. Now That's a Plan Worth Executing

By: Prof. Christine LOH (HKUST)

READ SCMP (2022.07.11)

 This opportunity provides exciting socio-economic opportunities for every segment of society, as well as for commercial and non-profit activities. The national, regional and local authorities have used various narratives at various times to describe their policies to create the future – such as ‘people-centered’, ‘common prosperity', ‘well-being of the people’, ‘smart and healthy cities’, ‘green and low carbon living’ and ‘sustainable development’. The people will interpret government plans using those same yardsticks. It is through the actualization of these positive concepts, and achievements of stated goals and targets, that the people will judge whether the leadership is meeting the challenge.

This is the first of a series of short ‘think papers’ to flesh out the thinking of a group of scholars from diverse backgrounds and institutions, coordinated by HKUST. We hope the effort will assist the authorities, as well as help society to see risks and opportunities more clearly in making choices for development. Similar ideas could be relevant also to the HKSAR Government’s other development plans.

READ PRESS RELEASE (2022.04.28)

Spanning across the Yuen Long District and the North District with a total land area of about 30,000 hectares, the metropolis is planned to house 2.5 million people and provide 650,000 new jobs. Its geographical proximity with Shenzhen also presents an excellent opportunity for mutually beneficial economic and ecological integration, laying the cornerstone for its transformation into not only an international innovation and technology (I&T) hub, but also a resilient ecological area.

If planned in a future-forward manner, the Northern Metropolis has the potential of opening a new chapter in Hong Kong’s carbon-neutral socio-economic development that is based on achieving sustainable development and ecological civilization. This paper discusses ideas fundamental to it becoming such a thriving, liveable metropolis.

Much of the public attention on the Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050, published immediately after the 2021 Policy Address, focussed on climate mitigation. Decarbonization is of course vitally important. However, in reconceptualizing any development area, the first step is to consider the climate risks the area faces and how to adapt to them using thoughtful design, innovation, and technology. In effect, climate adaptation is the planning of defensive mechanisms that must be robust and resilient so that people, assets, and biodiversity could be safeguarded.

Hence, an early consideration must be sea-level rise. The GBA lies within a geographical area that is threatened, the pace of which is increasing according to the latest science. Investors and businesses are increasingly interested to understand the risks to assets in vulnerable areas. Important energy generation and other assets are located in the Northern Metropolis. The planning for how to deal with sea level rise is primarily a government function. HKUST and China Water Risk (CWR) will co-publish a paper on this as part of the series of think papers.

The Hong Kong authorities have already considered the impact of sea-level rise as internal studies have been carried out although the results have not been published. We believe any such studies should be released so that an informed discussion could take place. Those studies are relevant for the planning of the Northern Metropolis. Studies done on Shenzhen would also be relevant. It would be preferable for studies relevant to Hong Kong and Shenzhen to be considered together for planning.

The mainland has existing plans to design and implement sponge cities over the course of the next decade. The idea of a sponge city is a nature-based approach for cities to improve the capacity to mainstream urban water management into urban planning policies and designs. Hong Kong’s version of sponge city is ‘blue-green infrastructure’, which has already been successfully implemented on small scale at various places. Hong Kong has experience in using nature-based solutions in city design and these can be implemented in the Northern Metropolis.

In reconceptualizing the Northern Metropolis and the adjoining area in Shenzhen (since Shenzhen has to implement sponge city as part of the national mandate), it makes sense for Hong Kong to work out a future-forward plan for strengthening the drainage system, improve flood management, and reuse rainwater using ecological and nature-based thinking in their design. We will develop a paper on this topic as part of the series of think papers.

Moreover, creating higher ecological resilience through strengthening the biodiversity base is vital for all areas of the world, including plans for the Northern Metropolis. This series of think papers will include forestry and biodiversity.

See Insights from key area experts:

Introducing Nature-based Solution to the new Northern Metropolis

By: Prof. Zhongming LU (HKUST)

Sustainable Strategies (Digitalisation, Nature-Based Solutions, & Green Finance)

By: Dr. Zhongming LU (HKUST) | Prof. Faith CHAN (University of Nottingham Ningbo China)

The Northern Metropolis (NM) concept plan has strong public support, so it is important to do a good job in its detailed planning and eventual execution ...

READ MORE

The HKSAR Government pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. The Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050 has FIVE main climate mitigation strategies to decarbonize:

• Clean electricity supply,
• Energy-saving,
• Green buildings,
• Green transport, and
• Waste reduction.

These strategies must of course be implemented throughout the city. Nevertheless, in reconceptualizing a specific development area, such as the Northern Metropolis, these strategies must be specifically considered and embedded. Such plans must be future-forward in orientation and in the best interest of Hong Kong's socio-economic-ecological development.

Each of the five areas is highly specialized. For the purposes of this series of think papers that relates to the creation of a carbon neutral-sustainable vision for the Northern Metropolis, we will address FOUR relevant issues in partnership with local and mainland scholars, scientists, NGOs, and public corporation :

• A regional electricity market with an integrated power grid  (instead of a connected grid) in the GBA to increase the renewable electricity generation and share of clean energy within the economy,
• Digitalising and greening infrastructure development planning to achieve low-carbon, healthy, and smart outcomes,
• Greening buildings both new buildings and retrofitting existing buildings so that they provide low carbon, health, and smart indoor environments, and
• Reindustrialization of industries in the Northern Metropolis, where land is available.

The national 14th Five Year Plan envisages the Greater Bay Area as a thriving urban metropolis that is also an international I&T hub. Large areas in the Northern Metropolis are reserved for I&T development, which is the physical connectivity point between Hong Kong and Shenzhen.

Promotion of I&T includes investing in education, having the right enabling policies, as well as stimulating growth in the various areas mentioned above, which together forms the core of I&T application in the economy. The concept of “green-and-low carbon” is a key driver for I&T, which is why tech-innovations now have to be green – hence references are being made to Green-FinTech, Green-PropTech and Green-FoodTech.

Hong Kong is home to a variety of innovative companies that are breaking new ground. They are inspiring others, and they have good opportunities to grow.

The Climate Risk Digital Solution

By: Prof. Entela BENZ (Intensel Limited, HKUST)

The carbon-neutral-ecological civilization transformation requires substantial financing. Global capital increasingly requires data on the environment, social and governance (ESG) performance of projects to decide funding assessment and if funded, reporting on performance.

Public sector funding, such as in reducing climate risks and minimizing its impacts (for example, defensive infrastructure to sea level rise), integration of waste management facilities, provision of clean energy and revitalizing water bodies into drainage improvement works, will make all business entities more competitive. For example, if electricity supply is zero carbon, then all businesses could show zero carbon in calculating their emissions from using electricity.

Private-sector funding is also critical to ESG performance. While a private property development company could retrofit existing buildings to save energy, it could also improve indoor air quality at the same time to meet much higher standards to bring calculable health benefits to occupants. In its ESG reporting, the company could show not only energy saving and low carbon emissions in its environmental performance but also improved health of occupants in its social performance. At the same time, it should be possible to show better financial performance too due to higher productivity-lower sick days.

Strong ESG performance for Hong Kong-based companies will make the Hong Kong economy more competitive. As listed companies are required by the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited to provide ESG reports, listed companies are beginning to require their suppliers to provide ESG information. As such, the corporate sector has an interest to cooperate to make everyone more competitive, and the authorities too should play a role to assist companies to embark on the ESG journey, as it will in turn improve environmental and social conditions in the city as a whole.

For the purpose of this series of think papers, there will be a HKUST contribution on greening the economy and finance.

Every administration from now on will have to pay special attention to the achievement of carbon neutrality. A major challenge is making complex, multi-disciplinary decisions. Climate change policymaking is led by Environment Bureau. Realizing that there were many cross-departmental issues, the Chief Secretary of the HKSAR chaired a specially established internal steering group to coordinate climate change decision-making. This task was taken up by the Chief Executive in 2021, as climate change became more important. Most recently, a new coordination office of climate change and carbon neutrality is being created within Environment Bureau. Moreover, the current Chief Executive has also proposed restructuring government Bureaux and Departments to be considered by the next term of government starting in July 2022. There is a case to be made that the HKSAR Government should think beyond administrative efficiency and consider how to distribute responsibility since the whole administration will have to be engaged for Hong Kong to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, and there is an urgency to start that process across the bureaucracy now. The planning and implementation of the Northern Metropolis involves many Bureaux and Departments, and it provides an opportunity to reflect on the restructuring of the government bureaucracy.

This series of think papers will include a paper on the policy-making structure of the HKSAR Government and observations on the challenge presented by dealing with climate change with reference to the Northern Metropolis.

Restructuring the Bureaucracy to Achieve Carbon Neutrality

By: Prof. Christine LOH & Ms. Olivia TO (HKUST)

The current Chief Executive of the HKSAR proposed a plan to restructure the government bureaucracy for consideration by the next administration “to enhance the effectiveness of governance” and “meet social expectations” ...

READ MORE

The Northern Metropolis provides an opportunity for Hong Kong to rethink development and how it should dovetail with the overarching goal of achieving sustainable development and carbon neutrality in 2050. We wish to contribute to its success through a series of think papers to stimulate discussion among scholars and the public.