An Action Model of Public- Private Partnership for Cleaner Air HUNG Wing-tat Associate Professor The Hong Kong Polytechnic University

BACKGROUND diesel vehicle is the major course of urban air pollution firstly tightened the law to control the emission standard and step up the law enforcement on smoky vehicles Secondly, new possible cleaner alternatives either for fuels, after treatment facilities or vehicles were seriously pursued Thirdly through public education campaign, Government requested vehicle owners to practice good driving habits such as maintaining their vehicle well and switching off their engine while waiting.

BACKGROUND Government’s role was a typical regulator and all the other stakeholders such as the car dealer, the fuel supplier, the vehicle fleet operators were being regulated The launching of the scheme of converting the small diesel to petrol vehicle program illustrates such a typical regulator/ being regulated relationship. And, it was certainly a course of failure.

DIESEL TO PETROL SCHEME (1995) to convert the small diesel vehicles (<1.5 tonnes) to petrol counterparts about 18,000 taxis and 4350 public light buses affected offered cash allowances to vehicle owners to convert their vehicles to petrol within a grace period of five years The consultation paper was published without prior estimation of the impacts and reactions of those affected the authority then was trying hard not to leak out any details of the proposal to the stakeholders

operators of these vehicles were furious with this scheme Firstly, petrol was more expensive than diesel Secondly, the maintenance of petrol vehicle might be more expensive than diesel thirdly, the life span of petrol vehicle was less than that of diesel These operators launched a very strong objection to the scheme and lobbied the legislators to vote against it Government was forced to shelve the scheme indefinitely DIESEL TO PETROL SCHEME (1995)

PARTNERSHIP Government learnt a lesson. The concept of partnership germinates Concept of partnership was discussed thoroughly in the Earth Summit 1992 Johannesburg Summit (2002) discovered partnership among governments not adequate, second type of partnership - “encourage partnership initiatives for implementation by all relevant actors to support the outcome of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.” was promoted Hong Kong started its public-private partnership in 1997, one year after the failure of the diesel to petrol scheme

AN ACTION MODEL OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas) taxi program in 1997 to switch the taxis to LPG taxis The uncertainties include the life span, the maintenance requirement, the refueling and the costs of LPG taxis. To clarify these uncertainties, the best way to tackle them was to run a trial program and allow all stakeholders to participate A monitoring committee was formed comprising all parties concerned: Environmental Protection Department, Transport Department, Fire Services Department, oil companies, car dealers, the taxi operators and academics to oversee the trail run

Monitoring Committee (Formed by stakeholders) Trial Program Formulation of scheme Government Trade representatives Academics Manufacturers Fuel suppliers Figure 1: An Action Model of Partnership AN ACTION MODEL OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

Exhaust emissions, convenience and costs of operation were examined and thoroughly discussed among members of the monitoring committee during the trial Majority of uncertainties was cleared The scheme was welcome by all stakeholders and it went through the consultation as well as the financial endorsement processes with no big hazel the scheme was implemented in 2000 This action model of partnership has then been widely adopted to help clean the air pollution from mobile sources AN ACTION MODEL OF PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIP

EPILOGUE The action model provides a good forum for dialogue among stakeholders It helps people involved understand much better rationales of each party and rooms available for negotiation The action model basically provides a test bed for ideas. Possible responses of all concerned parties can be taped and convergence can be achieved