Asia/Pacific Islands
EPA’s current work in Asia focuses on China and India. Our efforts are reducing air pollution, improving water quality, reducing greenhouse gases, and mitigating the threats posed by mercury and other toxic substances. We also have more limited partnerships in the Asia/Pacific region in Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, and the Pacific Islands.
China
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been collaborating with its counterpart, China's Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), now Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), on environmental issues for over two decades.
-
In December of 2003, EPA and SEPA signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) (PDF) (10 pp, 375 K, About PDF Files), providing a forum for EPA and SEPA to take a more strategic approach to our extensive cooperation. EPA cooperation with China is now implemented under the Memorandum with the Ministry of Environmental Protection (formerly the State Environmental Protection Administration).
-
Under the Clean Air and Energy Strategy, EPA and SEPA are working together on Air and Climate Programs in China, to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases (GHG). The Strategy focuses on strengthening regional coordination of clean air and energy management in key regions of China and addressing priority sectors affecting air, environment, and public health (initially, the power and transportation sectors).
-
At the second meeting of the U.S.-Sino Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation (held in Beijing on December 14, 2007), EPA and SEPA identified priorities for cooperation for 2008-09. (Read the joint statement released at the first meeting of the U.S.-Sino Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation)
India
While EPA activities in India date to the early 1980s, EPA’s program of environmental collaboration with India has expanded since 2000, with a Presidential visit to India that year. In November 2001, a Joint Statement was issued on the occasion of the India’s Prime Minister’s meeting with the President at the White House that established an Environment Track as a new component of the U.S.-India Economic Dialogue
EPA is partnering with India on projects related to:
Learn more about EPA’s Environmental Cooperation in India
Other Partnerships in Asia/Pacific Islands
-
EPA has a longstanding relationship with Japan’s Ministry of the Environment, under the U.S.- Japan Agreement on Cooperation in Environmental Protection.
-
EPA's Pacific Islands Office manages EPA's involvement and activities in the Pacific Insular areas: the U.S. flag areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Guam; and the freely associated states (FAS) of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), and the Republic of Palau.
-
EPA also has environmental agreements with Taiwan and Thailand: