HKQAA-HKJC Carbon Disclosure e-Platform Launching Seminar

The HKQAA-HKJC Carbon Disclosure e-Platform (CDeP) Launching Seminar was co-organized by Hong Kong Quality Assurance Agency (HKQAA) and The Hong Kong Jockey Club (HKJC) which was held on 18 Jun 2013. CDeP aims to provide an efficient and user-friendly channel that organizations can use to showcase their commitment to carbon management and learn from others over the internet.

I attended the seminar and meet many HKQAA friends. We took a photo before seminar start.

(Left: PC Chan, I, Bryan Peng and Nic Chan)

Starting the seminar, Ir. Prof. Peter Mok (Chairman, HKQAA) gave a welcoming speech. He said HKQAA would continue to conduct R&D project included CDeP which used to encourage the uptake of carbon reduction by organizations in Hong Kong.

Then Mrs. Mimi Cunningham (Director of Human Resources and Sustainability, The Hong Kong Jockey Club) gave an opening remarks. She said Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions were approximately six tons CO2 equivalent per person in Hong Kong. Therefore, we had no doubt to set programs to reduce GHG emission. HKJC would focus on energy saving structure, lighting, IT data centre, etc; so as to set a saving target upto 30%.

Launching Ceremony and group photo

The first speaker was Ms. Connie Sham (Senior Manager of Strategic Business, HKQAA) and her topic named "Overview of HKQAA-HKJC CDeP and ISO 14064 GHG Emission Verification". CDeP had five characteristics included Motivation, Disclosure, Benchmarking, Improvement and Transparency.

Firstly, Connie introduced CO2 Equivalent to other gas included N2O, CH4, PFCs, HFCs and SF6. Then she briefed Hong Kong Policy Address (2011-2012) which set the objective to 50-60% carbon intensity reduction as compared with 2005.

The GHG Management circle was introduced. It is like PDCA circle but modified as Measure, Set Objectives, Avoid, Reduce, Switch, Sequester, Assess and Offset. She said the key drivers were Disclosure Guideline, Consumers, Company Strategy, Financial Risk & Opportunity, and Requests from Stakeholders.

Then Connie introduced the HKQAA-HKJC CDeP and its online questionnaire. After performance data collected, the first report was expected to be released at the end of 2013 

After introduced CDeP, Connie introduced the ISO 14064 family as the diagram below.
In ISO 14064 Part 1: Setting Boundaries, organizational boundaries separated into Operational Control and Equity Share. Operational Boundaries further separated into Direct Emissions (Control of the sources) and Indirect Emissions (Result from organization's activities but sources not controlled).

The second speaker was Mr. W.K. Wong (Manager, Carbon and Energy, HKQAA) and his topic entitled "Latest Trend of Carbon Management and Offsetting".

Mr. Wong introduced 400ppm World to us. Earth Systems Research Laboratory announced that atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations reached more than 400 ppm, that's the highest levels of CO2 recorded in all of human history. Then Mr. Wong reviewed the key milestone of environmental policy in the world.

After that Mr. Wong introduced both China Carbon Reduction Policy and HKSAR Carbon Reduction Policy in the following diagrams. However, I found that the unit of China Carbon Reduction Policy was energy compsumption/carbon emissions per unit of GDP. Hong Kong's policy seems the absolute value.

Carbon Reduction Strategy included "TAX" and "CAP & TRADE" were discussed. Tradable Carbon Credit concept included compliance credit and voluntary credit was briefed. The following diagram showed the Credit generation.

Q&A Session:
I had asked two questions. One was the standardization of CO2 emission calculation and the other was the Carbon trade between Hong Kong and China. Connie said there were no limitation of the calculation in the initial stage of CDeP. Mr. Wong said Hong Kong is one country two systems, so we cannot trade our quote to China.

At the end, Dr. Michael P.H. Lam (CEO, HKQAA) gave an closing remarks. He said HKQAA would be taken an active role on sustainability in Hong Kong.

Reference:
HKQAA - http://www.hkqaa.org
HKQAA-HKJC Carbon Disclosure e-Platform - http://cdep.hkqaa.org/