| Oaxaca, Mexico, 13/10/1995 – The environment ministers of Canada, Mexico and the United States today signed a precedent-setting agreement to cooperate on reducing the threat of global change. The agreement is the basis for public-private partnerships to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in North America.
Our three nations are making North America a global model for working together to protect the environment and public health said U.S. EPA administrator Carol Browner, who signed the agreement alongside Canadian environment minister Sheila Copps and Mexican environment minister Julia Carabias. By working together, we can find solutions that are cleaner for the environment, cheaper for taxpayers and for industry and smarter for the future of our countries.
The agreement on climate change is one of several trilateral agreements being signed today in Oaxaca at a meeting of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation, a trinational organization formed under a side accord to NAFTA. The agreement calls for the NAFTA countries to cooperate on commitments to work with the private sector to boost investment in green technology, the promotion of forest conservation and energy efficiency.
North Americans have a responsibility to act decisively on climate change, said Minister Copps. We cannot affort to rest on our laurels and allow the threat of global warming to overwhelm our continent.
The CEC plan for climate change cooperation in North America builds on the Framework Convention on Climate Change. In that agreement, signed at the 1993 Earth Summit, the U.S. and Canada agreed to reduce emissions to 1990 levels by the year 2000.
The CEC, which is equally funded by the NAFTA partners, oversees a wide range of trinational cooperation programs. | 
