Community Dialogue & Just Transition

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Past Event

2022-07-13

《Climate Change x Social Issues》Climate Community Dialogue series: The Development of Renewable Energy in Just Transition and its Risks and Opportunities

In order to promote climate mitigation, countries around the world have increased the deployment of renewable energy, especially solar energy and wind energy. However, due to the slow renewable energy deployment attributed to the technical, finanical and political challenges and limitations, it is hard for countries and cities to meet the target of carbon neutrality. Therefore, CCIL has held the eighth community dialogue at the Breakthrough Centre on 13th July, 2022 which aims to explore the opportunities and challenges of climate justice in developing renewable energy. There are five goals, including 1) exploring the current renewable energy development and visions in Hong Kong, 2) comparing the renewable energy development among Hong Kong and other Asian cities, 3) exploring the means of handling both renewable energy development and just transition, 4) discussing current services, policies and practices in light of challenges, and 5) brainstorming proactive and adaptive options. 

The dialogue started with an opening speech given by Mr. Chong Chan Yau, co-founder and CEO of CCIL. He mentioned that despite the carbon neutrality of Hong Kong being set by 2050, Hong Kong Climate Action Plan 2050 published last year has listed that the application of renewable energy should increase to 7.5%-10% by 2035 and achieve 15% by 2050. With no doubt, the current development of renewable energy is lacking behind. Therefore, he sincrerely hope that all renewable energy related sectors, including academic field, policy research field, business sectors and green groups, can use this opportunity to have in-depth discussions, thereby sharing views on renewable energy with different stakeholders, and exploring feasible solutions on renewable energy development through collaborative force. 

After that, in order to review of the current development of renewable energy in Hong Kong, participants shared their views on 1) the working opportunities of renewable energy sector, 2) current welfare policies of renewable energy sector, and 3) comparison among Hong Kong and other Asian’s developed cities on developing renewable energy. Besides, participants brainstormed how Hong Kong can become a sustainable city through promoting renewable energy, and created a collage which displayed the elements that should be included in promoting renewable energy. Furthermore, they have discussed what and which policies and services should be enforced and carried out, consisting of facilitating regional renewable energy development, adopting the environmental impact assessment ordinance, and professionalising the green industry. At last, participants were invited to brainstorm solutions on developing renewable energy in terms of four aspects, which are 1) policy advocacy: urging for more ambitous renewable energy policies, 2) developing renewable energy infrastructure, 3) enhancing welfare policies of renewable energy sector and 4) others (for example facilitating community renewable energy development or promoting affordable renewable energy).  

In short, participants wish that climate justice is embraced in a renewable energy development, thereby securing vulnerable groups’ rights and living quality. In this event, It was our pleasure to invite participants from 10 organisations to join this community dialogue, which are from academia, policy research, business and green groups. The list of participating organisations is as follows. 

Academia: 

  • Faculty of Construction and Environment, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
  • Asian Energy Studies Centre of the Faculty of Social Science, Hong Kong Baptist University 

Policy Research: 

  • Civi Exchange 
  • Solmunity

Green Group: 

  • CarbonCare InnoLab
  • Greenpeace East Asia (Hong Kong)
  • World Wildlife Fund Hong Kong

Online Platform: 

  • RH Consultant Knowledge Sharing Platform

Business: 

  • The Hong Kong and China Gas Company
  • York Joint (Hong Kong) Limited

 
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