Secretary for Environment & Ecology Tse Chin-wan today attended a dialogue session at the 19th Eco Expo Asia to exchange views on Hong Kong's environment and various ecological matters with some 400 youngsters from schools and uniformed groups.

Discussing “Picturesque Bays of Hong Kong”, the first episode in a documentary series produced by the Environment & Ecology Bureau, Beautiful Hong Kong, Mr Tse said that besides being a highly developed city, Hong Kong is also committed to conserving its natural environment.

He highlighted that Hong Kong’s 25 country parks, including the newly established Robin's Nest Country Park, and 22 special areas, cover over 40% of the city’s land area.

He added that the city's beauty spots include an internationally important wetland designated as such under the Ramsar Convention, and the Hong Kong UNESCO Global Geopark. He mentioned that Hong Kong also has about 1,200 km of coastline and a sea area of more than 1,600 sq km, and that its waters contain about a quarter of China's marine species.

Hong Kong is home to over 80 species of marine stony corals, more than the entire Caribbean Sea, while the number of bird species here exceeds 580, accounting for about a third of China's total, he added.

“I hope that through the 'Picturesque Bays of Hong Kong' documentary, we can learn about the beauty of the place where we live, explore and, more importantly, cherish the beauty of Hong Kong's ecosystems and work together to help conserve nature.”

The young participants in the dialogue session voiced concerns on various environmental topics, including the increasing frequency of extreme weather.

Mr Tse said that carbon emissions in Hong Kong peaked in 2014, and that the city's current emissions have been reduced by about a quarter since then. Hong Kong's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are a quarter of those of the US and three-fifths of the EU's, he added.

Acknowledging that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 is a great challenge, the environment chief emphasised that the Government is adopting a range of measures to steer Hong Kong towards carbon neutrality.

These include accelerating green and low-carbon transformation, promoting green transport and cultivating the practice of waste reduction and recycling, as well as developing new energy sources and green scientific research industries.

In addition to the dialogue session, speakers from the Hong Kong Observatory and relevant departments shared their knowledge at seminars on environmental protection.