The Victoria Harbour view dims as the lights-out action begins on March 26. Provided to China Daily Volunteers perform at the countdown party of Earth Hour 2011 Hong Kong in front of the Hong Kong Culture Centre at Tsim Sha Tsui. Provided to China Daily Buildings on the Hong Kong Island side of the Victoria Harbour begin to turn off their lights. Provided to China Daily

Hong Kong joined with 5,000 cities around the world in late March to observe Earth Hour, a renewal of a global commitment to conserve energy. This year's observance was especially timely, as people everywhere were forced to consider the thorny issue of energy demand versus energy supplies. Kane Wu reports.

An eerie darkness descended on Victoria Harbour on the night of March 26. Even the famed "A Symphony of Lights" went dark as the city wound down for one night to consider a stark reality:

"If every city in the world lived a similar lifestyle to that of Hong Kong people, we would need the equivalent resources of 2.2 earths," said William Yu, as he stood looking out toward the city's iconic skyline. On the Tsim Sha Tsui side, the shopping and nightlife seemed more constrained than on other nights. The lights outside the skyscrapers and all the billboards that light up the harbor every night were turned off. . Even "A Symphony of Lights", the light and sound show and a major tourist attraction at the Tsim Sha Tsui harbor side, stopped its daily performance.

This was the night of Earth Hour, when over 3,200 companies, buildings, schools and private households in Hong Kong, including the government house and the Chief Executive's Office joined in the global event, observed in some 5,000 cities in 34 countries.

"We hope Hong Kong people can extend their energy conservation actions beyond this one hour and maintain a sustainable lifestyle," said Yu, who heads the Climate Program at the Hong Kong Office of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The WWF, based on studies of the Hong Kong Ecological Footprint Report for 2010, holds that Hong Kong people live beyond the earth's means to sustain them. Thus, Earth Hour became a means of renewing the commitment to conserve energy.

Lights on the tall buildings started to flicker out at around 8:30 pm. A record number had signed up to participate in the program in the third year that Hong Kong has marked the event.

"Our particular message to the public this year is consume wisely," Yu said.

The message had particular resonance, in light of the fact that there has been intense focus on discussions about electricity consumption and the whole question about how the city's power supply is structured.

The latest flurry of activity was set off by the 2011-2012 annual budget. During the speech, the financial secretary declared that every household will be getting a HK$1,800 subsidy on their electricity bills, as the city slips deeper into an inflationary cycle.

Although some 2.6 million people stand to benefit, green groups raised an immediate outcry, voicing concerns that the subsidy was an encouragement for consumers to increase their power use.

"In 2008, the government granted every household a HK$3,600 subsidy on electricity and it turned out that the annual consumption of electricity increased more than 700 million kilowatt-hours (kWh) over the previous year," Prentice Koo, campaigner for Greenpeace, told China Daily. "If the government wants to help poor families, it can subsidize families who use less than 200 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month."

"The HK$1,800 is completely unnecessary," Professor Dennis Leung of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) echoed. "It feels as if the government was encouraging people to use more energy because it already granted the HK$6,000 cash subsidy. This is not the right way to deal with inflation."

The debate over the subsidy was quickly overtaken when a new and far more alarming issue arose in mid-March when a tsunami, triggered by a powerful earthquake, rolled through a power station at Fukushima in Japan, setting off the worst nuclear disaster in nearly a quarter of a century.

People turned toward the government, almost as if by reflect, expecting that the Hong Kong administration would follow administrations in other locales and declare a go-slow policy on further development of nuclear power capacity. In October 2010, the government had declared intention to increase the proportionate amount of nuclear energy to meet the city's power needs from 23 percent at present to 50 percent by 2020.

"The government's 50-percent target is based on the amount of energy produced by current power plants and whether that can meet the amount of energy consumption. And currently people just consume too much energy," Professor Leung said.

In 2010, Hong Kong per capita energy consumption was 5,899 kWh, which Yu described as a "huge" amount, especially in the absence of any heavy industry in Hong Kong. By comparison, per capita consumption on the mainland was only 2,029. "What matters is not what kind of energy we use. What matters is how we can save it," he said. "Hong Kong has so much potential to conserve energy."

It certainly feels that way when you are inside any commercial building in the city. No matter whether it's winter or summer, rainy or sunny, the indoor temperature can always chill you. The government has been advocating air-conditioned room temperatures to be maintained at 25.5 C in the summer months, but many enterprises resist the guideline.

"The air conditioners set such low temperatures in the classrooms and library that I always get sick," Faye Ge, a student at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, complained. "Even in this weather, the classrooms are air-conditioned. I always have to wear a jacket. Why don't they make the temperature higher so that we can save energy and stay healthy? Isn't that a win-win strategy?"

Another problem is the dazzling array of light that has become part of Hong Kong's international image and identity.

"Outdoor lighting is on all the night when there is no one on the street. Hong Kong is called the Pearl of the Orient, but who is looking at the pearl at midnight? It is completely a waste of energy," Hahn Chu, environmental affairs manager at the green group Friends of the Earth, told China Daily.

"The government should reduce the number of lights in public places. It is too bright outside," said Amy Cheung, an office clerk who stood watching as the lights were switched off all around the harbor to mark Earth Hour. "We can still live without those lights."

Statistics show 28 percent of the electricity in commercial buildings is used to operate air-conditioners, while 12 percent is spent on lighting, Yu said. "I hope the government can establish regulations on the use of lighting and raise the standards of the current building energy code," he said.

He suggested that the government learn from Singapore, whose government launched a 10 percent challenge program, rewarding any company or household that manages to consume 10 percent less electricity than it did in the previous year. "Such programs are also carried out in California in the United States and Taiwan. California managed to reduce 50 percent of its electricity consumption in the first year," he said.

Professor Leung from the HKU thinks further ahead. "We should have a plan for renewable energy in the long term," he said.

Renewable energy such as wind power and solar power are still relatively expensive nowadays and are applied only on a small scale. However Leung said it might be different in 10 to 15 years. "Solar power should be well affordable by then. If Hong Kong can use one small island for this purpose, there will be no problem of electricity shortages," he envisioned. "What the government should do now is to enforce energy conservation so that we will have more time to wait for more mature renewable power technologies."

Chief Executive Officer Benjamin Hung of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, said at the conclusion of the Earth Hour event that the bank had sponsored that reducing the demand for electricity before increasing the supply of it is "the way to go".

Lights along the Victoria Harbour were coming back to life and once more the city was bathed in the aura of glamor that identifies Hong Kong as one of the great cities of the Orient. Earth Hour, however, serves as a stark reminder that time and non-renewable source of energy are growing short.

(HK Edition 04/05/2011 page4)