HKFP: Seventeen green groups in Hong Kong have petitioned the city’s government for a more progressive carbon emission reduction target that would align with the Paris Agreement.

Greenpeace, Green Earth, and CarbonCare InnoLab, representing 14 other green organisations, submitted the petition to the government on Wednesday, calling for measures to tackle the climate crisis ahead of the delivery of the Policy Address next week.

“Extreme weather conditions like scorching heat, heavy rain, and severe typhoons have become frequent in Hong Kong, seriously affecting residents’ lives and reflecting the imminent nature of the climate crisis,” Greenpeace Programme Manager Tom Ng said in a Chinese-language press release.

Hong Kong is aiming to cut carbon emissions by half before 2035, compared to the levels recorded in 2005, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050, according to the Climate Action Plan 2050, an environmental policy blueprint released in 2021.

The city first introduced the Climate Action Plan 2030+ in 2017 in response to the Paris Agreement, of which China is among the 195 signatories. The city’s policy blueprint is expected to receive a major update next year.

Hong Kong may exceed its carbon emission quota by 2029, the green groups said in the petition, citing the estimates by local think tank Civic Exchange.

Although greenhouse gas emissions in Hong Kong fell by 24 per cent between 2014 and 2022, the city may fail to maintain a carbon emission target that aligns with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5 degrees Celsius goal in 2029, according to the press release.

Kwok Hiu-chung, a senior programme manager at CarbonCare InnoLab, said that renewable energy only accounts for less than 1 per cent of Hong Kong’s energy supply, falling short of the targeted 7.5 to 10 per cent set out in the blueprint.

The government will need to prioritise local renewable energy in the next decade to meet the target, Kwok said.

He also urged authorities to implement measures to protect underprivileged groups from extreme heat. In July, the very hot weather warning was in effect for a total of 22 days, according to the Hong Kong Observatory.

Meanwhile, Steven Chan, an assistant manager of environmental affairs at Green Earth, noted that carbon emissions from waste had increased 25 per cent in the past two decades. He urged the government to step up efforts in waste reduction, reuse and recycling.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that the intensity and frequency of heatwaves have continued to increase since the 1950s due to human-caused climate change. The prevalence of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide – which trap heat in the atmosphere – raises the planet’s surface temperature, with hotter, longer heatwaves putting lives at risk.

Hong Kong has already warmed by 1.7 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution, research NGO Berkeley Earth says. Heat and humidity may reach lethal levels for protracted periods by the end of the century, according to a 2023 study, making it impossible to stay outdoors in some parts of the world.

Originally published on HKFP on 11 September 2025.