TCS

The 14th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting (TEMM14) was held in Beijing, China on May 4th, 2012.

Minister ZHOU Shengxian of the Ministry of Environmental Protection of the People’s Republic of China, Minister YOO Young Sook of the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Korea and Minister HOSONO Goshi of the Ministry of the Environment of Japan participated into the meeting. At the meeting, three ministers exchanged views on environmental policy of each country and other regional/global environmental issues and signed the Joint Communique of the 14th Tripartite Environment Ministers Meeting among China, Japan and Korea.

The Ministers shared the recent progress in each country regarding environmental policies after TEMM13. They welcomed the statements that introduced the main environmental efforts in 2011 and key environmental tasks in 2012 by China, titled “Latest Domestic Environmental Policies in Japan” by Japan and “Distribute Fruits of Green Growth Policy to the Entire Society: Major Environmental Policies in 2012” by Korea, which all stressed the importance of integrating environmental protection into economic and social development.

The Ministers exchanged their views on global and regional environmental issues such as illegal transboundary movement of e-waste, biodiversity including access and benefit sharing of genetic resources (ABS), green economy, green growth and low-carbon development, cooperation on disaster response, transboundary air pollution, and DSS response policy and so forth. The Ministers agreed that tripartite cooperation is essential in addressing these global and regional environmental challenges and also recognized that TEMM played an important role in promoting regional environmental cooperation in Northeast Asia.

The Ministers praised the idea of “being in the same boat, benefit sharing and joint preservation” regarding environmental cooperation among the three countries put forward by Minister Zhou Shengxian. They also welcomed the authorities of ecolabelling in each country signed on “Agreement on Multifunctional Devices Common Certification Rule of the Ecolabelling among China, Japan and Korea”, “Agreement on MRA-based Certification Procedure of Ecolabelling among China, Japan and Korea”, “Operation Rules of Mutual Recognition among China, Japan and Korea” at the occasion of TEMM 14.