BERLIN — Today, United States Environment Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan met with German Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection Steffi Lemke and President of the German Environment Agency Prof. Dirk Messner, in the realms of the meeting of the G7 environment, climate and energy ministers in Berlin.
Administrator Regan, Minister Lemke and President Messner released the following joint statement, highlighting their commitment to enhance cooperation among their institutions to address environmental issues relevant to the United States, Germany, as well as the international community. These include, among others, just transition and environmental justice, pollution of air, water and soil, as well as opportunities and risks for the environment posed by digitalization.
The United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany have a long tradition in ambitious environmental policy, both domestically and globally. As large industrialized economies, we face similar challenges to a clean environment, nature conservation and public health. Today, we want to initiate closer cooperation to address these challenges, by sharing experiences and knowledge and coordinating on major global environmental issues.
We recognize existing cooperation in the fields of climate and the environment between the United States of America and the Federal Republic of Germany, including the U.S.-Germany Climate and Energy Partnership, the Transatlantic Climate Bridge and the DE-US.net partnership on brownfield revitalization. Also, we welcome the existing longstanding exchange between experts of our institutions in various international fora, technical working groups, and research projects.
We are aware of the existence of regional and global environmental issues and stress the need to find long-term solutions to address these issues through international cooperation, as well as the importance of cooperation among the federal environmental institutions in both countries. We recognize the common environmental challenges facing both countries and the importance of bilateral cooperation and knowledge exchange to address these issues.
Therefore, we seek to deepen cooperation between our institutions in order to promote bilateral, as well as regional and multilateral initiatives, as appropriate, in critical environmental issues of mutual interest. These may include, but are not limited to:
- Just transition and environmental justice;
- Emissions of methane as an ozone precursor;
- Chemicals assessment and management;
- Air quality;
- Waste management and brownfields revitalization;
- Digitalization and sustainability;
- Green procurement;
- Solutions and best practices for combating marine litter;
- Implementation and enforcement of environmental laws;
- Nature-based climate action;
- Circular economy and resource efficiency;
- Waste management; and
- Water quality and wastewater management
We intend to cooperate at the technical level, including exchange of information and experiences, and, where appropriate, through joint research and collaboration and to meet regularly to discuss current international processes and strategic issues for cooperation and research.
We are committed to improving the state of our environment and to a just and equitable transition to a zero-carbon economy that leaves no one behind and recognize that our bilateral and multilateral cooperation are crucial elements to achieve these goals both domestically and globally.