The Pulse：Carrie Lam's new cabinet & discussion with Anson Chan, renewable energy in HK

After winning the Chief Executive election, Carrie Lam promised new blood and diversity in her administration. After months of searching, she said she’d even had a nightmare about not having enough people to swear in on July 1”. Well on Wednesday, she unveiled her new cabinet – which indeed had all the seats filled but they were pretty much filled with same old people. This has encouraged many people to say: “Meet the new boss, Same as the old boss”. With us in the studio to talk about the new cabinet is former Cheif Secretary Anson Chan.
In the wake of the United States’ government’s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement on climate change there’ve been suggestions that China could now assume the role of leadership on this matter. Cynics point out that as long as it is so difficult to breathe in so many large Chinese cities it may be premature to talk about PRC leadership on climate issues. However the Mainland is seeing extraordinary growth in solar and wind power production. The 2016-2020 “five-year-plan” for renewables aims to raise total wind generation capacity from 129 gigawatts in 2015 to more than 210 GW by 2020. Solar energy production is set to rise from some 43 to 110 GW. The wind and solar sectors in the mainland have attracted as much as 5.4 trillion yuan in investment and created thousands of jobs. So how is Hong Kong doing in all of this? Well, maybe not so great.
The United Kingdom’s “Queen’s Speech” may be delivered by the reigning monarch but is written by her ministers and lays out the government’s legislative agenda. This Wednesday, before heading to the horseracing at Royal Ascot The Queen announced a much scaled-down set of Conservative Party policies. Meanwhile, there was much social commentary about the possible significance of her apparently pro-EU headwear.
Well, we’ll leave you to be the judge of that. Goodbye.