U.S. Urges Global Cooperation

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (E.P.A.) has established six international initiatives that will bring climate change adaptation, national security, sustainable development and public health at the forefront of pressing global concerns.

Lisa Jackson, the agency’s administrator, announced these priorities at a conference of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation in Mexico. She urged for international collaboration to tackle global environmental issues in the next few years.

The agency aims to create strong environmental institutions and legal structures to highlight environment protection in current regulatory and enforcement systems. It will collaborate with countries such as India, Ghana, Kenya and Brazil to spur the stringent enforcement of effective environmental protection regulatory systems.

E.P.A. already set out a trade and environmental partnership with Chile through a cooperation agreement that will promote the development and implementation of environmental practices and technologies, especially in the business sector.

The agency will also team up with national governments to limit climate change pollutants, such as methane from landfills and black carbon from stoves. Such pollutants are damaging, especially in vulnerable regions such as the Himalayan glaciers and the Artic.

In line with this, the agency will strive to improve air quality in rapidly developing urban areas to reduce pollutants that aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases.

E.P.A. will also work with the United Nations Environmental Programme to reduce the effects of pesticides and other toxic chemicals, as well as collaborate with the United States Congress to strengthen chemical laws.

To ensure the availability of clean drinking water to the local population, the agency will install wastewater treatment and sanitation systems, particularly in overburdened and underserved areas such as those along the United States-Mexican border.

Lastly, the agency will deal with electronic waste by focusing on ways to improve the design, production, handling, recycling and proper disposal of electronic products.

“Pollution doesn’t stop at international borders, and neither can our environmental and health protections. The local and national environmental issues of the past are now global challenges,” Ms. Jackson stressed.

“These priorities will guide the E.P.A.’s work on our shared goals of facilitating commerce, promoting sustainable development, protecting vulnerable populations and engaging diplomatically around the world,”      Source : Ecoseed





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