Speech by Ambassador Cano at the EU Plastic Waste Workshop 2019

Secretary Wong, ladies and gentlemen

Welcome to the European Union Workshop on Plastic Waste Reduction, co-organised with the Hong Kong’s Business Environment Council.

The EU is hosting this event because we must do more than just raise awareness about climate change. By now, everyone in this room should be aware and concerned about the continuous damage we are doing to the environment.

This workshop is intended to go beyond talking about environmental problems and move together toward finding applicable solutions. More specifically, this workshop is focused on plastic waste. The EU, Hong Kong, and the world have a plastic addiction. The EU estimates that by 2050 our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Since I arrived in 2016, my office has organised three beach cleanings, as a way to do our share to protect Hong Kong's beautiful coastline.  During the first beach cleaning alone, and in less than 3 hours, over 900 kilos were collected by 100 volunteers, and most of it was plastic. Two days ago a whale was found dead in the Philippines with 40kg of plastic in its stomach. According to a Greenpeace report, the tiny plastic particles in Hong Kong's sea have seen an 11-fold increase in just three years, and they believe most of this plastic pollution was produced locally. We can and we must do better to protect the environment.

So today, we bring together policy makers, innovators and business leaders to exchange ideas, and showcase solutions which have been successfully implemented by European and Hong Kong businesses. Many of you have managed to turn plastic waste problems into profitable business opportunities and are successfully reducing, replacing, recovering and recycling plastic.

I am sure all of you will actively participate in the discussions to make this seminar as useful as possible. After the three panels of experts, the afternoon workshop will break you into groups so you can directly exchange experiences, best practices and come up with new ways of tackling plastic waste. The coffee breaks are also a great opportunity to find new partnerships.  If your company reduces its environmental impact we all win.

However, businesses can only do so much on their own. Businesses need the appropriate framework and regulation to move in the right direction. This is why I take this opportunity to thank Secretary Wong and his team from the Environmental Bureau for being here today. I look forward to our exchanges, and to discuss how we can deepen our cooperation on environmental policies. We hope that Hong Kong will become a leader in environmental policies in the region and there is plenty we can do together.

For the EU, the fight against plastic waste is part of a wider set of environmental protection policies. By fighting plastic waste, we fight climate change. In January 2018, the EU adopted the first-ever "European Strategy for Plastics in a Circular Economy". The strategy is part of Europe's transition towards a circular economy, and will contribute to reaching our Sustainable Development Goals, better design of plastic products, more plastic recycling, to help boost the market of recycled plastics.

As the EU leads the way in enacting policies to protect the environment and fight climate change its important to remember that the fight is not against plastic but against single-use plastic and waste. This is why we were delighted when Chief Executive Carrie Lam made explicit in her latest Policy Address that Hong Kong is now getting serious about fighting single use plastics. Let me be just as clear, the EU is ready to support Hong Kong as it moves towards more sustainable policies. This is also true of the European business community and the European Chambers of Commerce, which have been pushing for better environmental regulations and innovative business initiatives. Among others, the Finnish, Irish, and Swedish communities have been supportive of new environmental initiatives in Hong Kong. Companies from all MS are present in HK with state of the art technology and knowledge to support HK's efforts.

Before I cede the floor, I would like to thank, the Business Environment Council, particularly, Simon Ng and his team, for the great collaboration with the EU Office.

I wish everyone a very productive day. Thank you very much.