EPD Streamlines Environmental Impact Assessment Process with New Amendments Effective Since June 2023

Optimisation of EIA process to enhance efficiency and relevant transitional arrangements will end in mid-2025

The Environmental Protection Department (EPD) announced today (November 11) that amendments to the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) and the Technical Memorandum on Environmental Impact Assessment Process (Technical Memorandum) have been effective since their implementation on June 30, 2023. The related transitional arrangements will be terminated on June 30, 2025.

The spokesperson for the EPD said that the amendments have streamlined the entire environmental impact assessment (EIA) process, including simplifying the technical assessment requirements, facilitating direct application for environmental permits, establishing a Central Environmental Database (CED), and updating the list of designated projects. These optimisation measures have effectively enhanced the efficiency of EIAO operations. Since the implementation of the amendments, the time required for overall EIA projects has been reduced by half to approximately 15 to 24 months.

Effectiveness of optimisation measures

Under the optimised process, the EPD introduced the CED. Since its launch, the database has received positive feedback from stakeholders including government departments, consulting firms and academia. In the past year, about 80 EIA and planning projects have utilised the online tools of the database for research purposes. Moreover, there are around 2 000 public visitors per month browsing the environmental data on the database. The EPD will continue to update the CED and enhance it by extracting relevant ecological data from the approved EIA reports to help project proponents plan their projects and improve the standard of EIA studies.

For those designated projects with minor environmental impacts and proven mitigation measures, project proponents can directly apply for an environmental permit by submitting a project brief and effective mitigation measures with the facilitation arrangement.

For more complex and time-consuming projects, under the optimised EIA process, project proponents can utilise various innovative technical assessment measures in the CED, including using baseline air quality data and online noise assessment models, and conducting standardised ecological surveys in advance, which can shorten the overall EIA time by approximately 20 to 30 months.

Termination of transitional arrangements

For projects with EIA studies agreed before June 30, 2023, the EPD provided transitional arrangements, allowing the use of existing technical assessment methods. Given that the amendments have been in effect for over a year and the project proponents and the industry have generally adapted to the new requirements, the transitional arrangements will end by June 30, 2025.

The spokesperson said, "Project proponents adopting transitional arrangements must submit an application for approval of the EIA report to the Director of Environmental Protection on or before June 30, 2025. Applications submitted after this date must demonstrate that the technical assessment complies with the amended Technical Memorandum. Project proponents may also choose to apply for a fresh EIA study brief."

Remarks by STL at media session

​Following are the remarks by the Secretary for Transport and Logistics, Ms Mable Chan, at a media session after attending a radio programme today (December 7):

Reporter: How can upcoming railway transit systems integrate new technology and provide(services)for citizens? Given that upcoming railways will not adopt heavy rail systems, what is the advantage? Has the contractor been settled yet? And as the Kai Tak Sports Park will undergo a stress test of 12 000 people tomorrow, how confident is the Bureau towards dispersing people smoothly? Thank you.

Secretary for Transport and Logistics: For the second question about the commissioning of the Kai Tak Sports Park, my Bureau andthe relevant departments will participate actively in thevarious stress tests. In fact, there will be one tomorrow, and that will involve a total number of 12 000 people.We will be participating in it. Apart from us,thevarious public transport operators, including MTR, various buses, and also taxis, will also be involved. We hope that throughthevarious stress tests, we will step up our mobilisation, our preparation, and make ourselves better prepared for different scenarios, such that when theSportsPark is commissioned, we will haveabetter and holistic preparation to cater for different scenarios.It is, after all, a very significant milestone in Hong Kong's tourism development. We will give our best in order to make this a success, and also to give the best service for our locals and also for our visitors.

As far as the railway infrastructure is concerned, surely we are engaging and planning for a number of major projects.I think the infrastructure projects did provide a very good opportunity for Hong Kong's local development as well as further development of our economy. We will work very hard and adopt a double innovation approach. That is, we will adopt innovation in technology as well as an innovative mindset in the policy and procedural framework in order to catch up with the time we have lost as well as to conduct the project expeditiously.

(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)