39 CLARIFYING THE DEBATE ABOUT PROGRESSIVE APPROACH The effects of climate change such as unanticipated temperatures, rainfall and sea level rise have become more apparent over the last few decades. Various and numerous predictive models have been proposed by researchers to predict temperatures, rainfall, and sea level rise etc in 2050, 2100 and beyond, leading to different calls, including sensible and non-sensible ones, for new and modified design infrastructure guidelines to protect society. However, any new or modified design guidelines must be scientifically based and practically implementable. At present, no one knows which predictive models are accurate enough for design purposes, unless you are a good friend of “God”. It will not be responsible, scientific, and practical to implement dramatic revised design guidelines. We must assess the most credible, worst-case scenarios and adopt the “observational method” to revise and implement our current designs progressively. Charles WW Ng CLP Holdings Professor of Sustainability, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, HKUST 4 Nexus between Mitigation and Adaptation Sea level rise and Hong Kong The planning approach of CEDD in relation to sea level rise is summarized in Chapter 3. The question raised in Workshop A by China Water Risk (CWR)6 was whether CEDD’s view was too conservative considering sea level could be rising faster than previously thought. CWR suggested that CEDD’s plan for dealing with sea level rise of ~0.5m by 2100 was insufficient because at current trajectory global warming would likely exceed 1.5℃ within a decade, which would in turn lead to faster melting of glaciers, and furthermore, sea level rise might be amplified if the “low confidence scenarios” of IPCC AR6 materialised. As such, the question was whether Hong Kong should plan for 2-3m rise by 2100 instead. CWR suggested that other jurisdictions, such as New York City and Singapore, were taking a ‘no regret’ approach to plan for faster and higher sea level rise to protect their assets. While there was insufficient time to fully discuss the question, clarity could be brought about by: 1. Ensuring discussions compare like with like (between scenarios the government is using versus those used by others) such as on time scale, including the ‘low confidence scenarios’, and the range of projections for 2050, 2100 and beyond.7 2. What might be the worst-case extreme weather scenario for Hong Kong that includes high tide, storm surge and direct hits of super typhoons going out to 2050? 3. Better understanding of CEDD’s progressive adaptative approach and whether current plans would enable infrastructure to be added at what speed, scale, and cost. 4. What would be a ‘no regret’ approach for Hong Kong? Climate data and financial services Financial regulatory and relevant Bureaux formed the Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group (Steering Group) in 2020. The Centre for Green and Sustainable Finance (CGSF) was then created to build Eric Hui & Cindy Pau, Green and Sustainable Finance Cross-Agency Steering Group, HKMA
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