The HKIE Environmental Division (EVD)  (2021 – 2022) Annual Dinner was held successfully on the 26th November with over 200 young and experienced engineers and professionals gathered on this special occasion. With great privilege to invite Dr. CM Cheng, JP, the director of the Hong Kong Observatory as a keynote speaker of the night to explain the climate change phenomenon from a scientific perspective. Our Chairman, Ir CM Choi highlighted that this event is a great platform for members and guests to get connected and exchange ideas, which is especially crucial to young engineers. HKIE EVD strives to make a difference in this year’s event, including four presentations delivered by environmental engineers servicing different industries, followed by a series of Mentimeter Q&A sessions to inspire our guests on “Time to Change” our actions to pursue a sustainable Hong Kong.

Four guest speakers were invited to give presentations on how to achieve sustainability goals by actions of changes. Alex G. had provided a sharing on the reform of climate risk assessment and plausible decarbonisation strategies of Hong Kong in order to achieve net zero by 2050. Alex emphasized that Hong Kong has high potential to achieve the net zero goal in key sectors, including power generation, building infrastructure and mobility at reasonable cost with long-term benefits if ambitious actions are imperatively taken right now. During the Mentimeter session, 33 out of 77 respondents agreed that “integration with more energy efficiency and retrofit systems in buildings” is the most effective decarbonization strategy to drive a more sustainable Hong Kong.

Steven Ho shared his presentation on actions it will take to achieve the target set by HKSAR Government in Clear Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035 targeting on becoming a livable city with air quality on par with major international cities. Steven outlined the challenges of air quality issue in Hong Kong and the proposed improvement actions in six major areas including development of green transport, the creation of livable environment by management and planning policies, the implementation of  measures in emission reduction, the development of clean energy, the adoption of innovation technology for air quality monitoring as well as regional collaboration in Greater Bay Area. Out of the 6 areas of improvement actions, most of the Mentimeter respondents believed that phasing out aged diesel vehicles together with the implementation of new energy vehicles under green transport would be the key to a livable Hong Kong.