The Council for Sustainable Development will hold an air summit December 17 to involve stakeholders from various community sectors in wrapping up the public engagement process on air quality and consolidating views.

Stakeholders from the academic, business, professional, social, NGO and environmental sectors, district communities and the public will be invited to attend the summit to be opened by Chief Executive Donald Tsang. The council will draw conclusions after it and make recommendations to the Government early next year.

Council Chairman Edgar Cheng said about 80,000 responses have been received since the launch of the engagement process on air quality on June 2, gauging views on appropriate action on high air-pollution days, energy saving or demand side management, and congestion-charging mechanisms like electronic road pricing.

To ensure the fairness and transparency of the process, the views gathered during the engagement process are being studied and analysed by Hong Kong University Social Sciences Research Centre, which has been commissioned to be the independent reporting agency for this engagement process.

Regarding the Sustainable Development Fund, there were 32 submissions to the fifth round of fund applications. They will be reviewed and results announced early next year.

On the education and publicity front, the council will visit 46 schools this school year. A graffiti contest and a conference to promote sustainable development in various sectors of society will be staged next year.