Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao Report Significant Air Quality Improvements for 2024

Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network results for 2024 released

Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao jointly released today (November 7) a report on air quality in 2024 under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Pearl River Delta Regional Air Quality Monitoring Network, which indicates a long-term downward trend of the concentrations of various air pollutants, namely sulphur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), carbon monoxide (CO), respirable suspended particulates (RSPs, PM10) and fine suspended particulates (FSPs, PM2.5).

Over the years, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao have introduced a variety of policies and measures tailored to local circumstances, working together to improve regional air quality. The report reveals that the 2024 annual average concentrations for these parameters have declined between 18 per cent and 86 per cent from their peak levels (shown in Annexes 1 and 2). The decline well demonstrates the effectiveness of emission reduction measures implemented across the three places in improving air quality in the Pearl River Delta region.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Government has continued to implement various air pollutant emission control measures covered in the Hong Kong Roadmap on Popularisation of Electric Vehicles (EVs), the Clean Air Plan for Hong Kong 2035, Hong Kong's Climate Action Plan 2050 and the Green Transformation Roadmap of Public Buses and Taxis on marine and land transport, power plants and non-road mobile machinery to enhance air quality. In addition, the Air Pollution Control (Amendment) Ordinance 2025 came into effect on April 11, 2025. The Amendment Ordinance tightens five existing Air Quality Objectives (AQOs) and adds three new parameters introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) to the WHO Global Air Quality Guidelines. Among the 15 updated AQOs, seven are set at the most stringent levels of the Guidelines, which are on par with those of other advanced economies.

For vehicles, the HKSAR Government is committed to phasing out approximately 40 000 Euro IV diesel commercial vehicles progressively by the end of 2027. The Government deploys roadside remote sensing equipment to control exhaust emissions from vehicles. New registrations of fuel-propelled private cars including hybrids will cease in 2035 or earlier, and approximately 700 electric buses and 3 000 electric taxis will be introduced by end-2027. The HKSAR Government has been implementing and promoting green transformation of vehicles and is striving towards zero vehicular emissions by 2050. These efforts have produced early results. As at end-September 2025, the number of EVs in Hong Kong exceeded 135 000, of which about 132 000 were private cars - nine times the number from six years ago, accounting for 21 per cent of all private cars in Hong Kong.

Since 2019, Hong Kong has collaborated with Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) cities to establish a domestic marine emission control area in the Pearl River Delta, requiring all vessels to use compliant fuel within Hong Kong waters while sailing or at berth.

Meanwhile, Guangdong Province published and implemented the "Notice on Action Plan for Continuous Improvement of Air Quality in Guangdong Province Issued by the People's Government of Guangdong Province", the "Notice on Implementation of Monitoring Requirements on Fugitive Emission of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) from Factories Issued by Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province", the "Notice on Strengthening Control of VOCs Emissions During Storage and Transportation in Oil Depots and Petrochemical and Chemical Enterprises", the "Notice on Further Reduction of Nitrogen Oxides Emission from Stationary and Mobile Sources issued by Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province", and the "Notice on Strengthening Environmental Control on Diesel Trucks of Key Vehicle-using Enterprises", as well as promulgating the local standard "Integrated Emission Standard of VOCs for Stationary Pollution Source". Guangdong Province launched the hierarchical management of VOCs-related enterprises, enhanced the total VOCs management, advanced the control of industrial boilers and furnaces, upheld a co-ordinated approach across vehicle regulations, fuel standards, roadway management, and enterprise compliance to strengthen emissions regulations for diesel trucks operated by key enterprises, conducted compliance checks on new vehicles, improved emissions management for non-road mobile machinery, and carried out regular sampling and inspection of the fuel quality and emissions of engineering machinery.

The Macao Special Administrative Region (Macao SAR) Government is continuously implementing measures to improve air quality in line with the Long-term Decarbonisation Strategy of Macao (including the Macao Electric Vehicle Promotion Plan) and the Macao Environmental Protection Plan (2021–2025). These include controlling vehicle exhaust emissions, phasing out high-pollution vehicles, promoting EVs, and regulating VOCs. In 2024, the Macao SAR Government continued to encourage vehicle owners to phase out high-polluting old motorcycles and diesel vehicles through the Subsidy Scheme for Phasing out Old Motorcycles with Replacement of New Electric Motorcycles and the Subsidy Scheme for Phasing Out Old Diesel Vehicles. These efforts have achieved positive results. Building on this progress, the Macao SAR Government is launching a new phase of the Subsidy Scheme for Replacing Gasoline Motorcycles with New Electric Motorcycles in 2025. This new scheme expands the scope of eligible applicants to include all conventional fuel-propelled motorcycles and extends the scheme duration to five years, further intensifying efforts to phase out high-polluting motorcycles and promote electric motorcycles. In addition, the Macao SAR Government is studying the formulation of a new phase of the subsidy scheme for phasing out old diesel vehicles and is advancing a series of related policies. These include enhancing public charging and battery-swapping facilities, tightening emission limits for motorcycles and diesel vehicles as well as certain parameters for unleaded motor gasoline, restricting the import of construction adhesives exceeding VOC content limits, and increasing the proportion of local photovoltaic power generation. Through these comprehensive efforts, the Macao SAR Government aims to further reduce local emissions, enhance air quality, and achieve the regional joint prevention and control objectives.

The Network comprises a total of 23 air monitoring stations in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. The Ecological and Environmental Monitoring Centre of Guangdong, the Environmental Protection Department (EPD) of Hong Kong, the Macao Environmental Protection Bureau and the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau are responsible for the co-ordination, management and operation of the monitoring stations in the respective places and the release of quarterly and annual monitoring results. The relevant reports are available on the following websites:

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Regional Air Quality Monitoring Information System (www.gdeem.cn:20047/#/);

The Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province (gdee.gd.gov.cn);

The EPD of Hong Kong (www.epd.gov.hk); and

The Macao Environmental Protection Bureau (www.dspa.gov.mo) or the Macao Meteorological and Geophysical Bureau (www.smg.gov.mo).

Looking ahead, the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao will continue to work hand in hand to build a beautiful bay area and further improve air quality in the GBA.

Adjustment of income and asset limits of Working Family Allowance Scheme and arrangements for disbursement of one-off extra allowance announced

The Government announced today (April 1) the adjustment of income and asset limits of the Working Family Allowance (WFA) Scheme for 2026-27.

The WFA Scheme supports lower-income working households not receiving Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), promoting full-time employment and self-reliance, as well as rewarding hard work. It also provides child allowances to households with eligible children. The allowance under the WFA Scheme is assessed on a monthly basis with reference to household income and working hours. Under the WFA Scheme, the claim period covers the six calendar months preceding the submission of an application, and eligible households must make applications for each claim period.

The Government adjusts the income and asset limits of the WFA Scheme in April each year. Under the established adjustment mechanism, the Government adjusts the income limits of the WFA Scheme with reference to the median monthly domestic household income of economically active households of the previous calendar year. According to this mechanism, and based on the relevant statistics for 2025 released by the Census and Statistics Department, the 2026-27 income limits under the WFA Scheme for households with six or more persons would be tightened, while those for five-person households would be lower than those for four-person households. A number of existing WFA households would thus become ineligible for, or receive less, WFA. To minimise the adverse impact on WFA households, the Government will:

(a) maintain the income limits of the WFA Scheme for households with six persons or more at the 2025-26 level;

(b)adjust the income limits of the WFA Scheme for five-person households to align with those for four-person households; and

(c)increase the income limits of the WFA Scheme for other household sizes according to the established mechanism.

As regards the asset limits of the WFA Scheme, they are set with reference to the asset limits for public rental housing. The Government will increase the asset limits for all household sizes according to the mechanism. The adjusted income and asset limits of the WFA Scheme are provided at Annex. These arrangements will apply for one year starting from the claim month of April 2026.

In addition, if the Appropriation Bill 2026 (the Bill) is passed by the Legislative Council (LegCo), the Government will, as proposed in the 2026-27 Budget, disburse a one-off extra allowance to WFA households. The extra allowance is expected to be disbursed one month after the LegCo's passage of the Bill at the earliest.

Households in receipt of WFA whose applications are made within the applicable period (i.e. from the first day of the month in which the Bill is passed by the LegCo to the date of its passage; and the six calendar months before that month) and eventually approved will be eligible for the one-off extra allowance. The extra allowance is equal to the average monthly allowance in approved months in a recipient's most recent WFA application submitted within the applicable period and eventually approved. The amount varies from case to case.

In order to be eligible for the one-off extra allowance, new applicants or previous WFA recipients who have yet to submit applications during the applicable period should submit their applications before the applicable period expires (i.e. on or before the date of passage of the Bill by the LegCo). For applications submitted by post, the date of the post-stamp will be adopted as the application date.

If a WFA household is receiving CSSA on the date of passage of the Bill, the household will only be eligible for one single extra allowance under either the WFA Scheme or the CSSA Scheme, whichever is the greater.

For enquiries, please visit the website of the Working Family and Student Financial Assistance Agency (wfsfaa.gov.hk) or call the 24-hour hotline of the Working Family Allowance Office at 2558 3000.

Source: AI-found images