World Green Organisation welcomes CLP’s new subsidy scheme to improve the quality of life of underprivileged groups

World Green Organisation (WGO), alongside with its partners, have been striving for tariff freeze and energy rebate scheme for low electricity consumption families.CLP Power Hong Kong Limited(CLP) announced today that a HK$300 community care subsidy will be introduced to each eligible household. WGO welcomes the gesture, and believes the subsidy will contribute to a higher quality of life for the underprivileged groups.

“Underprivileged groups, who live in sub-divided units, cannot enjoy the Government’s subsidy due to the lack of separate ammeters.” Dr. William Yu, the Chief Executive Officer of WGO said “They are paying their electricity fees to their landlords, who have no incentive to refund the subsidy to their tenants. CLP’s new subsidy scheme will benefit the underprivileged groups directly by referencing the criteria used to determine the beneficiaries of the Government’s Community Care Fund.

According to a survey conducted by the World Green Organisation (WGO) last December, over 210,000 households are living under the ‘Energy Poverty Line’, which denotes households that spend more than 10% of their total family income on energy related fees to maintain the basic quality of life. In order to control the spending on energy, these underprivileged families may adopt the strictest measures which may be hazardous to health. WGO urges the Government to formulate a long-term proposal for reducing the energy related expenditure of these energy poverty households, so as to improve their quality of life.