Govt reviews environmental impact assessment process
The Secretary for Environment and Ecology on Saturday said the government was reviewing how environmental impact assessment (EIA) procedures are done, in a bid to improve and shorten them. Tse Chin-wan made the comments after the Advisory Council on the Environment failed to reach a decision on whether to endorse an EIA report on building public housing on part of the Hong Kong Golf Club in Fanling. The official said that in light of the case the administration was trying to see if there were ways to standardise and simplify EIA procedures. "We're not compromising conservation of the environment in order to build flats," he told a radio programme. "That's definitely not the case. But can the [EIA] procedures be done more quickly? Because sometimes we can see they take too long." The EIA study on the Fanling proposal began in late 2019 and took two years to complete, but the Advisory Council on the Environment recently decided additional information was required and said it would not reach a conclusion on endorsing the report before March next year.  Tse said the government was also looking to develop more guidelines on how to carry out ecological surveys when conducting EIA studies. Meanwhile, the minister said the government was planning to conduct a study on wetland conservation, saying the passive approach adopted in the past may not be the best way to protect the environment. Tse said wetland areas are currently dispersed and that some of these are in poor condition. He added that the authorities are hiring experts to look at the feasibility of forming a large wetland area in the Northern Metropolis which can be better managed.