From Sustainable Communities to Global Pollution Challenges: Twenty Years of U.S.-Taiwan Environmental Cooperation

Over the past two decades, Taiwan and the United States have made considerable progress on environmental protection, but both are still facing a broad spectrum of environmental challenges from industrial pollution and hazardous waste to unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change. In 1993 the American Institute in Taiwan and the Coordination Council for North American Affairs signed the Agreement for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection, which established a platform for cooperation between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Taiwan's Environmental Protection Administration (EPAT). Based on this platform the two agencies have worked together to drive environmental sustainability in the United States, Taiwan, and beyond on a broad range of issues, such as conducting joint studies on recycling and e-waste, building energy-efficiency, and mercury pollution prevention networks in Asia, and creating partnerships with state and local leaders to promote sustainable communities.

On the July 17th meeting, cosponsored by the Asia Program and the China Environment Forum cosponsored, three speakers will provide an overview of the expanding EPA – EPAT cooperation, highlighting the progress in developing sister sustainable communities in the United States and Taiwan. Stephen Shu-hung Shen, Minister of EPAT, and Randy Solomon, Sustainable Jersey community certification program lead, will introduce the successes of these sustainable community projects. Jane Nishida, U.S. EPA’s Acting Deputy Assistant Administrator for International & Tribal Affairs and former Maryland Secretary of Environment, will share how international collaboration can strengthen state and national environmental programs and provide opportunities for green growth.