
	Summer 2007

Published in Winter 2002

Program Notes

CEC Info and Updates

Environment, Economy and Trade

Recent and Upcoming Reports

Papers and proceedings of the first North American symposium on the environmental challenges of the new electricity market. February 2002.
“Understanding and Anticipating Environmental Change in North America: Building Blocs for Better Public Policy.” Summarizes work by CEC’s Critical and Emerging Environmental Trends Group. April.
“Lessons Learned” report of environmental assessments of free trade. March.
“Mexico and Emerging Carbon Markets.” November 2001.
“From Principles to Practice: Compendia of In Situ Sustainable Tourism in North America.” November 2001.

Market Surveys

Meetings

January 17-18, Montreal. Assessing the Environmental Effects of Trade Liberalization: Lessons Learned and Future Challenges. Among reports to be presented: Methodologies for examining environmental effects of free trade, and Effects of trade liberalization on agro-biodiversity. Topics for discussion: Use of precaution in domestic laws in three NAFTA countries, draft Article 13 report on Electricity and the Environment, preparation for the first NAFTA Trade and Environment ministerial meeting, scheduled for 2003.
February 18, Montreal. “Assessing Barriers and Opportunities for Renewable Energy in North America.”
February 25, Montreal. Workshop on Financing and the Environment.
March 4-8, Oaxaca, Mexico. Training Workshop on Biodiversity Incentives, OECD/WBI/CEC collaboration.
April 22-25, Philadelphia. North American Green Purchasing Conference, in conjunction with the Center for a New American Dream and TerraChoice.

Databases

Electricity and Environment, for Canada, Mexico, and the United States <http://www.cec.org/databases>. Our newest database joins those on coffee, tourism, and office-products, all found on our web site.

Pollutant Release and Transfer Register

Under a major proposed expansion of the National Pollutant Release Inventory in Canada, manufacturers, utilities, and other facilities will soon have to report emissions of certain air contaminants, allowing Canadians to track releases in their communities. Covered air pollutants include nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, VOCs, and particulates—the building blocks of smog and acid rain. Data will be collected annually starting in 2002. For more information, please see <http://www.cec.gc.ca/pdb/npri>.
Volunteers throughout North America have been working on projects to increase awareness and use of pollutant release and transfer register data. The first product: a brochure describing the registers. Other projects are under discussion. For more information, please contact Erica Phipps at 514 –350 4323.

Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC)

Jonathan Plaut has been re-elected to a third term as JPAC chair. An engineer and lawyer, Plaut has been an industry leader in environmental advocacy—as head of a task force at the US EPA, as a representative to the 1992 United Nations environmental conference in Rio de Janeiro, and as senior advisor to the UN Environmental Program in New York. He currently teaches at Pennsylvania State University and is president of the Board of Global Learning, a nonprofit environmental education organization in New Jersey.
Official JPAC publications can be found on the CEC web site at <http://www.cec.org/jpac> . To request hard copies of documents, please contact the CEC Secretariat directly by e-mail, at <jmorin@ccemtl.org>, or telephone, (514) 350-4366.