Business Environment Council Limited (BEC) recently launched the Road Transport Dialogue Platform with the support of the HKSAR Government. Under Secretary for the Environment, Mr CW Tse, Under Secretary for Transport and Housing, Prof Raymond So and other representatives from the government joined over 25 business leaders from the transport and logistics industry in the platform’s first meeting on November 20, agreeing to work collaboratively towards reducing the industry’s carbon emission and improving Hong Kong’s air quality.
     Under Secretary for the Environment, Mr CW Tse said, “Air pollution does not have to be part and parcel of our daily life. Due to efforts made in reducing emissions from the vehicle fleet and other sources, we have seen some improvement in air quality in the past few years. However, still a lot more needs to be done and the Environment Bureau looks forward to collaborating with all sectors of the community to bring cleaner and healthier air to this city as well as develop a low carbon life style.”
     BEC’s Road Transport Dialogue Platform serves as a forum for businesses which own or control large fleets of vehicles to come together and work with the government towards reducing Hong Kong’s carbon emissions. These companies include bus and coach companies, and also those who manage delivery vehicles, service vehicles, construction vehicles and logistics. There will be 3 to 5 more regular meetings for the Dialogue Platform in 2018, and occasional meetings with the government on specific policy issues exclusively for BEC members.
     The platform aims to explore action in relation to the following: transitioning to low emission vehicles and using low emission fuels, smart systems such as for logistics routing and encouraging good driver practices, and other means of minimizing congestion and speeding up the movement of vehicles.