clear the air type non governmental organisation industry environmentalism founded 10 december 1997 headquarters hong kong website cleartheair.org.hk clear the air simplified chinese ; traditional chinese is a voluntary organisation aiming at reducing air pollution in hong kong . it was founded on 10 december 1997 as a society under the societies ordinance cap 151 . it is self sustained and is supported by individual membership fees and member donations . means fighting for air and living up to others expectations . means action . so the chinese name of clear the air means that people must act now fight for better air and also act now to meet others expectations . contents 1 mission 2 objectives 3 history 4 areas concerned 4.1 pollutants from china 4.2 vehicles and vessels 4.3 traffic and roads 4.4 power plants 4.5 tobacco smoke 5 actions and activities 5.1 engine street patrol discontinued 5.2 presentations 5.3 publicity events 5.4 liquor licensing board objections 6 measures to curb air pollution by hong kong sar 7 see also 8 references 9 external links mission edit clear the air is a voluntary organisation and a registered charity . it hopes to raise the awareness of the government and the legislative council on the worsening air quality in hong kong 1 its mission is to introduce and implement measures to significantly reduce air pollution in hong kong . citation needed objectives edit to form an association among members of the public having a common goal in protecting air quality from excessive pollution in hong kong ; to take all lawful actions in educating the public on the need to protect air quality and the public health ; and to take all lawful actions in persuading the government of hong kong to take actions to protect air quality . history edit in june 1997 at a dinner party barbara parr ruby cautherly anne forrest and janet golden agreed to set up this organisation . they also agreed that each of them has to find a friend to set up and join this organisation . they have found six people altogether they are george cautherly christine loh and michel porro michael moszynski pip landers and lisa hopkinson . at last these ten people joined hands to form clear the air . hong kong telecom acquired by pccw limited in 2000 donated hk 50 000 as the initial funding to clear the air . barbara parr then arranged for pro bono council.ruby cautherly s graphic design company designed the corporate logo pro bono and donated all graphic materials . anne forrest loaned her centrally located conference room for the meetings . michel porro did all of the photography pro bono and george cautherly was a part time administrator . moreover michael moszynski of m & c saatchi now london advertising was one of the earliest members and he did the advertising work on a pro bono basis . ten years later in 2007 the executive committee comprised chairman christian masset vice chairman phil heung secretary amy ng communications phil smyth membership ann davy hou tobacco legal james middleton energy mark hunter idling engines amy ng marine & aviation guy shirra town planning dr auyeung chi shing indoor george woo areas concerned edit hong kong s poor air quality is the main topic of conversation in town . many people want to understand the details so they can assess to matters and take actions such as deciding whether to stay in or leave hong kong . the five main areas about which the organisation is most concerned are pollutants from china vehicles and vessels traffic and roads power plants and tobacco smoke . central district and victoria harbour on a polluted morning and a clear morning as shown on the right hand side taken from a rooftop on seymour rd near robinson rd . pollutants from china edit clear the air is concerned at the condition of air quality in the pearl river delta and how it affects the air quality in hong kong . the air pollution from shenzhen chinese and the province of guangdong chinese mostly affects hong kong in winter time when the prevailing winds are from the north . the organisation has claimed the blue sky project launched by the guangdong government in 2000 which is a project to curb the air pollution problem as a mystery . in the project 100 cases of industrial pollution were to be dealt with but the organisation questions which companies are involved and how many of them are hong kong companies aka cartels . vehicles and vessels edit clear the air has stated that diesel engines are one of the main sources of roadside pollutants they support the use of hybrid buses and urges government to turn all public light buses into liquid petroleum gas lpg vehicles . other areas concerned are smoky vehicles and vessels e.g.ships boats and ferries 2 where reporting of idling engines is also encouraged by the organisation . the organisation recommends anyone to report any vessel that emits black smoke continuously to the marine department chinese . it also recommends citizens to travel by mass transit systems like the mass transit railway mtr 3 which save energy and creates much less air pollution . traffic and roads edit the organisation is in the position against building new roads and they believe that this would not neither reduce the traffic nor the number of cars . they are in favour of imposing a congestion charge . in 2005 when the transport department has stated that the traffic congestion on northern hong kong island should be solved by building a new bypass clear the air maintained that a new bypass would not be the solution where an electronic road pricing erp is the only solution to the congestion problem . 4 power plants edit the organisation is concerned about the pollution generated by the two electric companies hong kong electric holdings ltd. 5 and clp holdings ltd. 6 and claims that a tighter emission level should be applied . the three power plants in hong kong burn coal . exxon mobil is the major shareholder in the clp venture and mega tycoon li ka shing owns hk electric . the companies sell a percentage of their output power over the border to guangdong . according to the data recorded by the environmental protection department in 2004 7 the three power plants account for the emission of the major pollutants in hong kong . the emission and accumulation of respirable suspended particulates 8 are the major pollution threats in hong kong . high concentration of pollutants leads to the formation of smog and haze and triggers health hazards especially respiratory illnesses like asthma . their chairman has once described hongkong electric as a heavy polluter and demanded the company to achieve the 2010 emission reduction targets where otherwise action should be taken against it . 9 the organisation advocates the use of renewable energy which is clean and pollution free for example wind power and solar power whilst lowering existing electricity usage . as a result of the 2007 unep governing council meeting 140 governments have agreed that work should start as soon as possible to aim for a global binding agreement on mercury . the reduction of toxic mercury should be achieved through several means that are stated in a proposal made by several environmental ngos that attended the 2007 unep meeting . tobacco smoke edit the organisation is firmly against smoking as tobacco smoke contributes to vast amount of pollutant like nicotine respirable suspended particles and carbon monoxide . clear the air has stated that they will help to check smoking by several means . to help enforce the smoking ban by giving their members instructions for reporting to the labour department about cases where the ban is not enforced . to get more bars and restaurants to become smoke free without qualified establishment exemptions . but the hong kong administration after taking years to bring in the anti smoking legislation immediately granted smoking deferral exemptions to any licensed restaurant or bar that applied for same the exemptions remain valid until 1 july 2009 . the ironic fact is that the health department is the authority granting the smoking law exemptions whilst having to treat the results . to try stopping smoking advertisements that the organisation believes as hooking people to smoke since young age by challenging with the hong kong trademark department on trademarks of tobacco company . to try banning smoking in public places by using the interpretation of the littering law which states that the action of blow offensive noxious or obnoxious matter or any substance likely to constitute a nuisance is not allowed . hong kong as a special administrative region of china must abide by the framework convention on tobacco control treaty to which china is a ratified signatory . on world no tobacco day 2011 clear the air was presented with a plaque by the minister of health york chow for its work in tobacco control in hong kong . actions and activities edit the organisation acts actively to raise the awareness of curbing air pollution in hong kong this includes giving demonstrations and press releases and having interaction with the public directly . engine street patrol discontinued edit the offence of allowing an engine to idle has now been gazetted and the hk government is to be responsible for enforcing this law . presentations edit the organisation expresses their view in issues concerning air quality by presenting them to the government . clear the air also reports to international organisations about the condition of air pollution in hong kong . list of presentations by clear the air march 2005 international business committee meeting with government august 2005 town planning board about electronic road pricing september 2005 harbourfront enhancement committee expert forum about electronic road pricing september 2005 european chambers of commerce about pollution in the pearl river delta and hong kong publicity events edit clear the air has organised many events in publicising the importance of good air quality . list of events organised by clear the air march 2000 set up an information booth during the spring extravaganzafair . june 2000 organised the kcrc clear the air clean transport poster contest aiming at primary and secondary school students . april 2005 organised the earth day at kowloon park . liquor licensing board objections edit clear the air does not oppose liquor licence renewals . rather cta moves to educate the licensees of their legal requirements to keep the workplace safe from dangers to the health of bar premises workers and patrons alike . measures to curb air pollution by hong kong sar edit action blue sky to reduce emissions from vehicles ; to reduce emissions from industrial sources and power plants . press release see also edit clean air network references edit the road to cleaner air scmp . homepage . the star ferry company . . archived from the original on 8 october 2006 . leung wendy . the standard 10 august 2005 . whats news . heh.com . . clpgoup.com . archived from the original on 22 october 2006 . environmental protection department . air pollutants and greenhouse gas emission inventory 1990 2004 . api . li joseph . china daily hong kong edition 17 august 2006 . external links edit clear the air official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title clear the air hong kong & oldid 738448212 categories environmental organisations based in hong kongorganisations based in hong konghidden categories engvarb from july 2014use dmy dates from july 2014articles containing simplified chinese language textarticles containing traditional chinese language textall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2007 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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