A central tenet of sustainable development is public participation. Decisions made behind closed doors, however wise and appropriate, will not be sustainable if there is not sufficient support from the community. SusDev21 was supposed to be a great opportunity to educate the public about the issues and seek their input. Other than a few exhibitions in shopping centres, some uninspiring public leaflets and a few closed-door meetings, there has been very little to bring the public into the process. Madam President, it is going to take more, much more, than recycling paper or banning unleaded petrol, to make us sustainable.
Institutional change is central to the achievement.
The government has to accept that fundamental changes to the way it operates are inevitable, indeed healthy and desirable. There are few places in the world like Hong Kong where the opportunities exist to try out new ideas and technologies that could make us a showcase sustainable community for China and the rest of the world. Sustainability indicators are one way to show people the direction in which their society is moving. At the same time we need to rethink the whole way policy is formulated in Hong Kong to ensure that we are truly planning for the long term. We owe Hong Kong people, their children and their grandchildren no less.