0		Yikes!, CLP, Power, third, largest, polluter, Asia?

While Hong Kong politicians, activists and common people are quick to point fingers to China as a major source of pollutants, they don't really have to go beyond the boundary to find the real culprit. Castle Peak's CLP Power plant — about an hour's drive from downtown Hong Kong — is the Chinese territory's biggest emitter of carbon dioxide, contributing 50 percent of all emissions. It's irony or coincidence of sorts because once you look at the website a graphic animation will say "To be a leader in Asia Pacific". In terms of polluting the world? Thanks a lot.

The newly launched Carbon Monitoring for Action database said the coal-fired Castle Peak power plant spewed out 35.8 million tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide a year, making it the third biggest emitter of the greenhouse gas in Asia.

But the research was quickly denounced as inaccurate.

China Light and Power, the company that operates the plant, said the data was wrong, citing its own independently audited reports that put carbon dioxide emissions at 13.3 million metric tons (14.7 million U.S. tons) for 2006, well under half the amount cited in the database.

Researchers at the Washington-based Center for Global Development, which directed the global database of carbon emissions, had agreed to amend the data, CLP spokesman Carl Kitchen said.

This follows the news that the Australians are the world's worst individual greenhouse gas polluters if emissions are calculated from the output of the country's power stations, a new analysis says.

Each Australian produces nearly 11 tonnes of carbon dixoide power sector emissions, the US follows on 9 tonnes per person. China produces only 2 tonnes a year per person and Indians emit about half a tonne per person.

Pollution is a hot-button issue in Hong Kong, where the glittering skyline is often hidden from view by a blanket of smoggy haze.