Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan attended the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Energy Ministerial Meeting held in Lima, Peru on August 15 and 16.

At the August 15 meeting, Mr Tse discussed topics such as the promotion of energy transition in the region with energy ministers or their representatives from APEC member economies.

He said during the discussion session that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government has set net-zero electricity generation as one of the four decarbonisation strategies in Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050.

The Hong Kong SAR Government has set a target to cease using coal for daily electricity generation before 2035 and increase the share of usage of zero-carbon energy in electricity generation to around 60% to 70% by 2035.

Mr Tse also pointed out that the Hong Kong SAR Government will launch the Pilot Scheme on Building-Integrated Photovoltaics to explore photovoltaic technology applications on the facades of government buildings.

In addition to public organisations, the Hong Kong SAR Government has also created favourable conditions to encourage the private sector to develop renewable energy.

One of the measures is the Feed-in Tariff Scheme launched in 2018. The scheme has approved 25,500 applications and connected to the power grids. It is estimated that over 300 million kilowatt hours of electricity can be generated each year through the approved system, which is sufficient to meet the electricity demand of about 122,000 households.

The environment chief continued to participate in the meeting on August 16 to share with other APEC member economies how the Hong Kong SAR Government promotes the development of hydrogen energy.

He outlined that hydrogen energy is regarded as a low-carbon energy with development potential, and countries around the world are actively promoting the development of the hydrogen energy industry.

To prepare for opportunities presented by the development of hydrogen energy, the Hong Kong SAR Government announced the Strategy of Hydrogen Development in Hong Kong in June this year.

Mr Tse pointed out that Hong Kong is an international city and financial centre and can become a demonstration platform for hydrogen technologies to assist the development of the hydrogen industry in different regions.

During the APEC meeting, Mr Tse had bilateral meetings with representatives from Peru, Singapore and Vietnam respectively to exchange views on issues such as energy transition, decarbonisation and hydrogen development.

He also met National Energy Administration Deputy Director Ren Jingdong on the sidelines of the meeting to  exchange views on strengthening regional co-operation on August 15.

Mr Tse will arrive back in Hong Kong on Monday.