Hong Kong climate change and its effects

, for decades or longer. Weather is the atmospheric state that is characteristic of humidity, temperature, rainfall, and wind, over hours, to days, to weeks. Thus, climate in a broadened sense is the statistical explanation of the states of climate systems (Australian Academy of Science 1). Therefore, climatic changes are the alterations in the statistical characteristics of climatic systems that persist for at least thirty years or longer. The logical components include variability, extremes, and averages. 34 degrees Celsius per decade that was witnessed in the years 1989 to 2006 (72). In this literature review, part I will focus on the relationship between Climate changes and Hong Kong’s climate, ocean, ecosystems, and environment. Part II will examine how climatic change poses a significant threat to Hong Kong’s Safety through hurricanes, flooding, and thunderstorms.

Part III will focus on the mitigation plans that Hong Kong has implemented to date towards the dealing with climate changes, and part IV will center on identifying the global best practices to dealing with the problem and the lessons that Hong Kong could learn and adapt to be more effective. PART I: - The Effects of climate change on Hong Kong’s 1. The annual average temperatures had been increasing by 3. 5 degrees Celsius while the number of hot days in summer had been doubling from 11 to 24 days where temperatures were 33 degrees Celsius and above. The number of hot nights had risen by 30 per year, translating to four times the average level then. Cold days that had been experiencing temperatures in the range of 12 degrees Celsius and below in winter had decreased to less than a day a year from 21 days that previously had been existing (Alexandra et al.

In China and East Asia, research indicates rainfall has been increasing with the doubling in concentration of carbon-dioxide. However, HKO has recently reported that there are no definite conclusions on whether tropical cyclone activities will increase due to global warming. The recent documented data suggests that there has been a decrease in the landing of tropical-cyclones over south-western China’s coastal stretch that is within three-hundred kilometers away from Hong-Kong. The landing had been declining at a rate of 0. 17 per every ten years from 3 tropical cyclones in the year 1960 to around 2. 5 tropical tornadoes in 1990. Climate Change and Oceans in Hong Kong Research conducted in China in the last 10 to 15 years attempting to predict the relative rise in sea levels in the GRPD regions and the consequential risks to flooding and an inundation of some parts of the area indicate that there still is a lot of work to be done so that agreeable conclusions can be arrived at as to the magnitude of an increase in sea level, the consequent results on the water-levels in the rivers plus estuaries and the resultant impacts to the expanse.

However evidence shows that there is a upsurge in the sea levels and will continue to increase in the GRPD region due to climatic-changes effects and that the region's urban development and physical geography makes it prone to the extreme impact of the rises in sea levels and more so an inundation of the low-land areas. Investigations by the Chinese Sciences Academy indicated in 1994, climate- change caused natural-progradation, i. e. , a change in the outline of the coastline that was a result of the gradual sedimentation build-up. They found out that should the sea water level rise by three meters the flooding would translate to in the inundation of Zhuhai, Guangzhou metropolis area, Jiangmen and floodplains would occur. Should the water level rise by four meters, the flood would affect the entire region, i.

e. Jiangmen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai, with severe flooding as well reported around Dongguan. A six-meter sea-level rise would result in flooding spreading further to the western Pearl-River-Delta extending to around Dongguan. Information gathered in 2008 indicated that GHGs discharges amounted to around 44 million tonnes, which translated to 7 million tonnes per capita. The primary source of GHG radiations is power-generation, accounting for 68 % of the total emissions in Hong Kong, followed by the transport at 18% then waste-treatment at 5% and agriculture and industrial processes at 4% each. Thus climate-changes affect the infrastructure that is associated with the transmission of electricity and the distribution of fuel. The demands for energy are increasingly sensitive to temperature. The increase in per-capita incomes in the Greater- Pearl-River-Delta intensify the use of inland air-conditioning systems with the industries using sophisticated machinery to enhance manufacturing that more often requires constant cooling down of temperatures.

E. g. a decrease in the flow of water in the rivers during the drier years effectively affects the amount of power generated (28). In the Greater-Pearl-River-Delta, water reservoirs are already overwhelmed by the increase in population and industrialization. The construction of sewerage and water management systems are not always effective in meeting water demands in some specific areas within the region, with the unrestricted groundwater exploitation further intensifying the problems bedeviling land-subsidence and the quality of water. Majorly, this happens due to the inadequacy of the drainage facilities in most of the Greater- Pearl-River-Delta cities especially Guangzhou. In case higher tides are experienced due to higher sea-level rises; the salty-water intrusions upstream cause the Greater-Pearl-River-Delta's natural irrigation and drainage systems to diminish their effectiveness.

Thus, more difficulties are experienced while draining wastewaters from towns and cities which increases pollution of the water-bodies' networks and embankment areas (29). Part II: - How climate change threatens Hong Kong’s overall safety Natural-hazards only translate to disasters where societies are vulnerable. There are two pre-requisites for a disaster to happen that include the occurrences of natural-hazards' events and the existence of vulnerabilities of the hazards impacting in an area, and hence there are no "pure natural-disasters" per se. Additionally, Hong Kong’s weather has become quite unpredictable due to climate changes. Cities and countries globally are attempting to manage these challenges that are taunted to be complex and unprecedented, Hong Kong not exempted. Therefore, the country's HKO released its first report that focused on climate change and that described the challenges faced by the city in responding to persistent weather-fluctuations.

The problems include momentous increases in rainfall, sea-levels, and temperatures. (Welford 6) observes that Hong Kong also experiences extreme weather occurrences on a regular basis that are more likely to be damaging and frequent. Flooding is most likely to be resulting from sea-levels rises, heavy rains overcoming the drainage systems, tidal-flooding and rising ground waters (6) and more likely that these events will coincide. The disastrous consequences of flooding include (i) losses of life, personal injuries and water-borne ailments. (ii) The contamination of water bodies and soil-degradation. (iii) Direct damages to infrastructure, utilities and properties. (iii) Losses of incomes, working days and other associated impacts and (IV) The breaking up of communities and families in the affected areas leading to increased costs such as the requirements to take insurances and other associated services.

Freak-weather occurrences also result in increases in mortality and morbidity rates. Typhoons and floods dominantly lead to some direct adverse effects, however, they also result to some other indirect effects such as diseases from the contamination of water by the broken sewer lines and also adverse mental -health effects. Mental-Health is an under-addressed climate-change impact. Studies have suggested that suicidal-attempts, post-traumatic-stress disorders, depression and the abuse of substances all escalate with the rise in weather catastrophes' Through the frequent direct exposure to the sun, skin –cancers and cataracts become a norm from the strong ultra-violet radiations. Food-safety and hygiene are also affected due to the rise in bacterial infections emanating from an increased contact of food by pests such as cockroaches and flies.

In the absence, therefore of any intensive energy industries, Hong Kong’s generation of power in the country is the most significant source of green-house-gases’ emissions. For example in 2008, electricity accounted for 67% of all emissions, closely followed by transport at 18%, waste-treatment at 5% and agriculture and industrial processes at 4%. Below, we shall examine local initiatives and programs that are geared towards cutting GHGs’ emissions from the generation of electricity, the promotion of green transport, enhancing carbon sinks and carbon audits’ implementation (76). (a) The cutting down of GHG-emissions while generating energy Over half of the city's electricity is produced through coal burning. Thus, some of the practical measures that have been undertaken include:- (i) Adoption of cleaner alternatives apart from fossil-fuels: - Coal is the dominant element in power generation mix accounting for 54%, followed by natural gases at 23% and nuclear-electricity that is usually imported from the mainland at 23%.

The financial incentive stated that companies supporting renewable-energy would attract higher investment rates of return at 11% as compared to 9. 99% on other assets. Hong Kong statutes provide for bonuses in the ranges between 0. 05 percent are permitted as returns to companies to the extent of their application of renewable-energy to generate electricity. Wind Power is a renewable and clean source of energy that is in use in Hong Kong. However, participation rates for the private sector have been low. Therefore, since voluntary and financial incentives proved not too efficient as intervention measures, thus, in 2005, Hong Kong's building and energy codes became compulsory and adhered to by all government buildings as well as retrofit projects. Additionally, to encourage private sectors' participation, the energy and building efficiency-funding arrangements were launched in 2009.

They were intended to subsidize private buildings-owners to conduct carbon/energy audits and efficiencies' projects of their buildings. (iii) Controlling energy demands by transiting into reduced carbon ways of life:- For this point, people need to be inspired and educated to implement changes as they will prove to be beneficial. , Earth-Hour, as organized by WWF, incorporated over 2600 companies and their buildings and 250 universities and schools in 2010. Subsequently, Greenpeace through its "Car-Free-Day" initiatives in 2009 and "No-Air-Con-Night" by Green-Sense in 2010 encouraged people to switch off their air conditioning machines for 12 hours a day (79). (b) The Promotion of green-transport: - Research conducted in 2008 indicated that transport contributed to around 18% of all the GHGs emitted in Hong Kong as the second largest source. Thus, railway-transport is highly encouraged, the converting of buses to cleaner, energy-efficient models and also the promotion of electric and hybrid vehicles.

As bio-diesel is cleaner than fossil-fuel and thus to promote its use, the government decided to waive all duty taxes on it since 2007. The Building-Energy-Efficiency –Funding-Schemes, as set up by Hong-Kong's administration in 2009, subsidizes the entire eligible and willing applicants to evaluate energy and carbon-audits in structures. (e) Prevention of Landslide through Modern Engineering (Chau et al 430) paints to us a picture of Hong Kong’s terrain. The island has three unique territories i. e. the Hong Kong Island, New-Territories and Kowloon. The four design and construction stages included: - stage 1:-undertaking preliminary studies that consisted of sites reconnaissance to categorize the slopes that required detailed studies. Where there were signs of obvious and immediate danger, then accelerated re-construction works would be commenced.

Stage 2:- detailed studies that consisted of desk studies, aerial photographic interpretations, site-observations, stability-analysis and ground investigating works to establish whether upgrading initiatives are necessary or not. For slopes that are private in nature, where there is compelling evidence that dangers are eminent from the slope, then, a statutory repair directive would be issued to its private owners. This process was referred to safety-screenings. The implementation of LPM programs and geotechnical controls has progressively decreased the risks of landslide occurrences to reach the lowest practical levels. However, the Hong Kong government cannot afford to be complacent in maintaining the slope-safety mechanisms. If not maintained, landslide risks will increase as time goes by due to slope deteriorations and also due to encroachments of urban developments or redevelopments upon steep natural hillsides.

The results would be additional risks to life, substantial economic-losses and significant social-disruptions due to road blockages and evacuations as landslides occur. Such events compromise public safety, sustainable developments and Hong Kong’s status as a tourist destination and a modern metropolis city (357) PART III: - Global Best practices in the management of climate changes: The British Columbia According to (Robinson et al 4) British-Columbia has moved from Climate-Changes as it was conventionally done to sustainable-developments. (e) Structural and fundamental changes in the production and servicing systems. (f) Spatially distributing population patterns and economic activities. (g) Behavioral practices that are the determining factors to how lifestyles evolve (5) Therefore achieving these milestones is no mean feat and achieving these changes may require a shift in focus and emphasis on personal behaviors and choices as they are common in most of the environmental-economics and literature and gravitate towards the question of corporate choices and decisions.

Key issues to be evaluated include changes to the already implemented policies, laws and rules that manage how individuals make their choices. Urban and essential areas are affected by corporate choices such as decisions on urban forms, land-planning, transporting-systems, energy and other infrastructural investments (6). Our focus has been Hong Kong, and we have established how Climate-change has impacted the country's environment, oceans and Marine-Life, eco-systems and Climate. Climatic-changes in Hong Kong primarily affect the country's climatological temperatures mainly in the Greater-Pearl’-River-Deltas where there is either too much or too little rainfall. Greater- Pearl-River-Delta comprising of Macau, Hong-Kong & Pearl- River-Deltas is already under enormous stress from intensive water consuming factors such as increased population, large-scale manufacturing, and urban developments. On the other hand, prolonged and heavy downpours results in excessive run-offs, i.

e. In our study, we have also established that how climatological-changes affect the safety of Hong Kong as a country and how it operates. Climate –changes disasters, more so in the whole of Asia, are too costly as they affect human health, communities' cohesiveness, and economic values in the long term and the city’s competitiveness and biodiversity among other sectors. The last major significant disaster to happen was the 1962 storm-surge linked to typhoon-Wanda where there were 185 causalities, thereby taking the third position in the list of Hong-Kong most catastrophic typhoons since1884. Nonetheless, daily weathers have become quite unpredictable due to climate changes. Cities and countries globally are attempting to manage these challenges that are believed to be complex and unprecedented, Hong Kong not exempted.

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