Aude Pommeret and Lin Zhang
On December 13th, 2016 Hong Kong Electric (HKE) announced a reduction in the Net Tariff by 17.2% starting January 1st, 2017. In the meantime, CLP announced the frozen Average Tariff for 2017 with a rebate. The official justifications provided by HK Electric were first that in reducing its electricity price, the utility was returning to customers the refunds HKE had received from government as rents and rates had been overcharged in the past.
Hong Kong (HK), while blessed with beautiful scenic terrain, has not been as well-endowed regarding natural resources – it has modest land suitable for agriculture, no significant rivers or forests, and only a handful of mineral resources.
In January 2017 the Hong Kong Government released its Climate Action Plan 2030+, giving details of targets to reduce the carbon intensity of the economy by 65-70% by 2030.
Tunç Durmaz1 and Aude Pommeret
Eight years on since the United Nations IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its effort in combating climate change, fossil fuel remains the most dominant global energy source.
Prof Johnny C.-L. Chan, Chair Professor of Atmospheric Science and Director of the Guy Carpenter Asia-Pacific Climate Impact Centre, secured major funding in the latest round of the prestigious European Council (EC)/Research Grant Council (RGC) Joint Research Scheme.
The funding, worth almost HKD 2 M, shall allow Prof Chan to develop a computer modeling system to predict the frequency of tropical cyclone landfalls in the East Asia region as well as their intensities, which involves a suite of models that includes coupling with the ocean.
Prof Irene M. C. Lo, Fellow Academician of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts, presented the advancement in designing magnetic nanoparticles for wastewater treatment at the inaugural SEE Colloquium.
The research team, led by Dr Walid Daoud, Associate Professor in CityU’s School of Energy and Environment, has combined two energy conversion concepts, namely piezoelectric and triboelectric effects, to create a hybrid system.
The rapid development and economic prowess that we have enjoyed in the last century was built on the backbone of fossil energy. From heating to manufacturing, mass transportation to lighting bulbs, and even powering our remote control, the energy was sourced, directly or indirectly, from crude oil, coal or natural gas which chemical energy was converted to electricity.
