2014 environment results ‘still unsatisfactory’

The Times took a look at the Environmental Protection Bureau’s (DSPA) “Report on the State of the Environment of Macau: 2014”, the latest year for which the report was available, ahead of the Macau International Environment Cooperation Forum and Exhibition (MIECF) 2016 which will begin today.
The report assesses resource consumption and waste generation and their polluting effect on Macau’s environment, concluding that, despite the improvement in environmental infrastructure and promotion of public awareness undertaken by the government, “the results are still unsatisfactory.”
An introductory message to the report, authored by Secretary for Transport and Public Works, Raimundo do Rosario, guaranteed that “environmental protection is one of the priorities of [the] government”, and pledges to focus on “environmental education and [the] promotion of public awareness, with the vision to improve the quality of life of residents.”
The DSPA report indicated that the atmospheric environment of Macau improved in 2014 when compared with previous years – particularly in terms of air quality and emissions reduction of greenhouse gases.
However, the continuous urban and social pressures exerted by the economic development on the Pearl River Delta Region have outweighed this improvement through an increase in the volume of water consumption and waste generation.
According to the report, in 2014 electricity generation in Macau amounted to more than double what it was 15 years earlier, in 1999 at the time of the handover. It grew by 5.6 percent in 2014, when compared with a year earlier, rising to a total of 4,469 million kWh.
Billed water consumption registered a similar increase, up by 6.4 percent from 2013.
On the other hand greenhouse gas emissions were reduced slightly, and waste transferred to Macau’s Refuse Incineration Plant for treatment increased, with most of the growth occurring between 2011 and 2014.
Waste transferred at the facility grew at its steepest rate since it was put into operation in 2008, observing a year-on-year double-digit growth of 15.3 percent, according to the report, implying an improvement in consumer or business attitudes to recycling.
However, the report stressed, “in just six years [of operation] the rapid increase in quantity of waste in Macau has already occupied nearly 50 percent of the newly-­added treatment capacity of the Macau Refuse Incineration Plant.”
Alarmingly the bureau found that in 2014 urban waste per capita in Macau was more than double that compared with Beijing and Shanghai, and nearly six times that of Taipei.
Therefore, in the DSPA environmental assessment waste management was marked as “unsatisfactory”, alongside electricity consumption, billed water consumption and visitor arrivals, taking into consideration the low starting base and GDP growth of 2014, which reduces the relative impact of an increase in waste recycling by comparison.
A supplementary letter from Vai Hoi Ieong, Director of the Environmental Bureau, warns that there exist “certain environmental conditions [that are] failing to meet expectations and [are] worthy of concern.”
On the other hand the Director notes that, with the cooperation of the public, private corporations and the MSAR government, a low-carbon and green future of Macau can be realized. DB