Subscribe RSSHONG KONG — Beijing's settling to come clean on its dirty air has embarrassed Hong Kong, where smog kills hundreds of people a year, hurts subject and drives away talent, a think-tank has said.
Mike Kilburn, head of environmental tactics at non-profit group Civic Exchange, said Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang's failure to fix the municipality's air quality could have far-reaching consequences for its competitiveness.
"The Hong Kong government must introduce new air quality objectives immediately, especially now that China has put out its own air grade objective," he told AFP.
"Hong Kong is in a highly embarrassing position now that China has introduced new measures."
Beijing last week bowed to a vocal online operations for a change in the way air quality is measured and pledged to start publishing figures showing the smallest, most dangerous soiling particles.
The Chinese capital currently bases its air quality information on particles of 10 micrometres or larger, known as PM10, and does not take into account the smaller particulates that experts say are most toxic to human health.
