Building Services Engineers Perceptions of Climate Change - the Case of Hong Kong

BUILDING SERVICES ENGINEERS PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE:
THE CASE OF HONG KONG

        by

        SHING Kwan Ho

        DISSERTATION

        Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for

        the degree of Master of Social Sciences (Corporate Environmental Governance),

        The Kadoorie Institute

        The University of Hong Kong

        June, 2009

ABSTRACT

This research assessed the local building services engineers’ general perceptions of climate change. The participants’ (1) opinion and knowledge on “global climate change”, “climate change in Hong Kong” and “building services engineering in Hong Kong” and (2) their perceptions towards the perceptions and actions from different groups were measured.

In summary, no respondent disagreed with the occurrence of the global climate change but they appeared to be generally not showing strong feelings or opinions towards the climate change issues and their perceptions on different bodies. They may have limited knowledge about the Kyoto Protocol. Developers in Hong Kong were perceived to be the party which did not perceive climate change as a problem and did not take action to mitigate the impacts brought by climate change. Lastly respondents showed different points of view on whether building services engineering has an adverse impact on climate change. Some might be focusing on the actual impact while some might thought the engineers were mitigating the impact on climate change.

DECLARATION

I declare that this dissertation represents my own work, except where due acknowledgement is made, and that it has not been previously included in a thesis, dissertation or report submitted to the University of Hong Kong or to any other institution for a degree, diploma or other qualifications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The author gratefully thanks his supervisor Prof. Richard Walker for his valuable advice, especially on the research method and his comments on my work. The author would also like to thank all the classmates who were studying with me in my first degree on BEng in Building Services Engineering, as they had been very helpful in both participation and distribution of the questionnaires. The author would like to thank his family and Miss Vivian TSE for their understanding and support during the half year of research study. Finally the author wants to dedicate this piece of work to his grandmother, Ms HO Yin Ping, who passed away on the Christmas Day in 2008, for everything she did for me and for the family. May she rest in peace.

TABLE OF CONTENT

ABSTRACT        

DECLARATION        

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT        

TABLE OF CONTENT        

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION        

1.1 Climate Change and Building Services Engineering        

1.2 Climate Change in Hong Kong        

1.3 Research objectives        

1.4 Methodology        

1.5 Structure of the dissertation        

CHAPTER 2 CLIMATE CHANGE AND BUILDING SERVICES ENGINEERING        

2.1 Introduction        

2.2 Climate Change        

2.3 Causes of Climate Change        

2.4 Impacts of Climate Change        

2.5 Building Services Engineering        

2.6 Relationship between Climate Change and Building Services Engineering        

2.7 Conclusion        

CHAPTER 3 CLIMATE CHANGE IN HONG KONG        

3.1 Introduction        

3.2 Evidence of Climate Change in Hong Kong        

3.3 Potential impacts of Climate Change in Hong Kong        

3.4 Responses from Hong Kong Government        

3.5 Responses from the professional Building Services Engineering institutions        

3.6 Response from the general public        

3.7 Conclusions        

CHAPTER 4 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES AND IMPLICATIONS        

4.1 Research Objectives        

4.2 Research Implications        

CHAPTER 5 METHODOLOGY        

5.1 Types of surveys        

5.2 Participants and Sampling Method        

5.3 Procedures        

5.4 Measures        

5.5 Respondent Profiles        

CHAPTER 6 RESULTS, ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS        

6.1 Results        

6.2 Analysis and Findings        

CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSIONS, LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS        

7.1 Discussions        

7.2 Limitations