Let There Be Light—Page 2
But Hong Kongers are beginning to realize that they aren't helpless before their Industrial Age neighbor. The city is the largest outside source of investment in Guangdong, and Hong Kong companies run at least 53,000 factories there. A consensus is growing that Hong Kong businessmen who have grown rich polluting the Pearl River Delta should help clean up the mess. "In the past, they thought that the dirty fields, the dirty air and the dirty water resulting from the factories would not be their problems," said Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang last month. "These things come back to haunt us. You breathe in that air in Hong Kong and you drink that water in Hong Kong." Last fall the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce and the Business Council on the Environment began asking companies to sign the Clean Air Charter, which pledged them to meet strict environmental standards, publish emissions data and boost energy efficiency at factories in Hong Kong and Guangdong. Although the measures are voluntary, 205 companies and business associations have signed the charter, including Emper Industrial Ltd., which weaves leather for shoes and is run by Helmut Widdek. "A businessman can have a factory in China and live on Hong Kong island, but his children cannot go out because of the pollution," says Widdek, an Austrian who's lived in Hong Kong for 17 years. "If he's not starting to think about that, something is wrong."

The business community is also increasingly worried that pollution will make Hong Kong fall behind in the arms race for top foreign workers. Last month human-resources consultancy ECA International dropped Hong Kong 12 spots to No. 32 on its annual list of the most livable cities for Asian expatriates, chiefly on the basis of air pollution. (Singapore was No. 1.) Headhunters are already grappling with this competitive threat. Aaron Stewart, director of the Hong Kong division of recruitment firm Pelham International, tells of a client who accepted an $800,000-a-year offer to move from the U.S. to Hong Kong, only to drop out at the last minute because his wife feared the effect the city's air pollution would have on their two asthmatic children. "The majority of people spend a lot of time thinking about it," he says. "There's no denying the pollution."

Denial is one thing Hong Kong's leaders can't afford. The key is to attack the problem holistically. Civic Exchange's Loh suggests starting with real cooperation between Hong Kong and the nearby cities of Shenzhen and Dongguan, which are also eager to clean up pollution. One step would be to work together to help manufacturers source and burn cleaner fuels. Inside Hong Kong, the government should fast-track low-polluting liquid natural gas for power producers, and improve the city's inefficient energy use—in part by turning down subarctic office air-conditioning. Given the rapid growth in the region's power and transport sectors, even the most energetic policies may not be enough to save the sky, but unless Hong Kong acts far more aggressively, the future could be unlivable. "I'm hopeful, but we really have to put this on the front burner," says Alexis Lau, an air-pollution expert at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. "You can't just run away from the problem." Especially when you're running through Hong Kong's foul air.

—With reporting by Tara Kilachand and Austin Ramzy/Hong Kong

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