Christine Loh

Air Pollution: Costs and Paths to a Solution in Hong Kong—Understanding the Connections Among Visibility, Air Pollution, and Health Costs in Pursuit of Accountability, Environmental Justice, and Health Protection

Air quality has deteriorated in Hong Kong over more than 15 yr. As part of a program of public accountability, photographs on Poor and Better visibility days were used as representations of the relationships among visibility, air pollution, adverse health effects, and community costs for health care and lost productivity. Coefficients from time-series models and gazetted costs were used to estimate the health and economic impacts of different levels of pollution. In this population of 6.9 million, air quality improvement from the annual average to the lowest pollutant levels of Better visibility days, comparable to the World Health Organization air quality guidelines, would avoid 1335 deaths, 60,587 hospital bed days, and 6.7 million doctor visits for respiratory complaints each year. Direct costs and productivity losses avoided would be over US

Political Reform in Hong Kong: the Principal Officials Accountability System. The first year (2002–2003)

240 million a year. The dissemination of these findings led to increased demands for pollution controls from the public and legislators, but denials of the need for urgent action arose from the government. The outcome demonstrates the need for more effective translation of the scientific evidence base into risk communication and public policy.

Policy change driven by an AIS-assisted marine emission inventory in Hong Kong and the Pearl River Delta

The new Principal Officials Accountability System (POAS), a proto-ministerial system, was established at the start of the Second Term of Office of the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). This paper examines the setting-up of the POAS and reviews how it has functioned during its first year of life. Both the design and implementation of the POAS were characterized by undue haste. The establishing of the POAS intensified the debate on a range of matters as new ministers, senior civil servants and residents have come to terms with the detail of this novel arrangement. Discussions about political reform are set to intensify in the years to come. This article reviews the origins and deeper need for the POAS in Hong Kong before looking at the fundamentals of the new system. The nature of ‘accountability’ is then discussed prior to examining Hong Kongs experience with the POAS in action during its first year. The article also discusses the potential of the POAS to contribute to Hong Kongs overall political development.