Bilateral Programs

EPA often works directly with specific countries through bilateral programs to achieve environmental goals. Our key partner countries include Mexico, Canada, China, and India, among others.

U.S.-Mexico Border 2012 Program

Working together under the 1983 La Paz Agreement, the United States and Mexico have made enormous progress in protecting and improving the health and environmental conditions along the border region. EPA coordinates and collaborates with Mexico's Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales - SEMARNAT), state and local governments, the private sector, and non-governmental organizations to address environmental risks along the border. Together the EPA and SEMARNAT developed the Border 2012 Program---in partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Mexican Secretariat of Health and other federal agencies, as well as ten U.S. and Mexican border states and U.S. tribal governments. Signed on April 3, 2003, the ten-year Border 2012 Program emphasizes a bottom-up, regional approach, anticipating that local decision making, priority setting, and project implementation are the best ways to address environmental issues in the border region.

U.S.-Canada Environmental Cooperation

Thanks to cooperation with Canada dating back to the Boundary Waters Treaty of 1909, there have been significant environmental gains along the world's longest shared border, particularly in the fight against water and air pollution. EPA and Environment Canada lead efforts to protect and improve the water quality of shared watershed ecosystems such as the Great Lakes. Close cooperation under the U.S.-Canada Air Quality Agreement, for example, reduced sulfur dioxide pollution and other priority pollutants. Additional agreements address major issues such as trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes, scientific research and technical cooperation, and joint preparedness for response to environmental emergencies along the U.S.-Canada border.

Cooperation with China

Many of EPA's activities in China are conducted under the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with China's State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA). The MOU establishes a Joint Committee on Environmental Cooperation that met for the first time in 2005 and approved strategies for cooperation on water quality management, hazardous waste management, and the management of POPs and other toxic substances.

EPA also cooperates with the Ministry of Science and Technology on energy sector projects, with the National Development and Reform Commission on climate change and energy efficiency, and with the Ministry of Agriculture on pesticides. Most recently, EPA has begun to cooperate with the Ministry of Water Resources on water management issues, especially wetlands and water quality.

Cooperation with India

EPA is cooperating with India under a MOU signed between the EPA and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute. The MOU outlines four areas of bilateral cooperation in environmental protection: air quality management; water quality management; management of toxic and hazardous materials; and environmental governance. EPA also has a cooperative agreement with India's National Environmental Engineering Institute to support capacity building and demonstration projects under the MOU.

EPA is working with the city of Pune to demonstrate the application of science-based urban air quality management, which includes air monitoring, emission inventory, air modeling, health impacts assessment, and control strategy development. Demonstration work on diesel retrofit technology and other efforts are beginning to improve air quality for the city's three million residents.

EPA also collaborates with the WHO and other institutions to improve water quality management. This effort includes a multi-pronged approach of strengthening the capacity of water quality testing laboratories for monitoring and surveillance, improving source water protection, optimizing water treatment plant performance, and correcting leaks and sewerage contamination of distribution systems. EPA works with Indian environmental regulators at the central and state government levels to improve environmental compliance and enforcement strategies.

Bilateral Programs

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