E.P.A. Administrator Traveling to Japan to Highlight and Advance Environmental Bilateral Cooperation

McCarthy to give international address on the need for global climate action

WASHINGTON - E.P.A. (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy will travel to Japan from August 23-29 to advance environmental bilateral cooperation between the U.S. Government and the Government of Japan. The trip builds on outcomes agreed to during Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's state visit to the U.S. in April 2015. EPA's bilateral relationship with Japan is rooted in a 40-year history of cooperation on environmental issues that dates back to an Arrangement on Cooperation in the Field of Environmental Protection between the U.S. and Japan in 1975.

While in Tokyo on Monday, Administrator McCarthy will participate in a high-level dialogue with the Ministry of the Environment of Japan, meet with international business leaders, and host a tea with Japanese women environmental leaders.

McCarthy will then travel to Minamata on Tuesday to highlight U.S. and Japanese cooperation on preventing mercury pollution and bring attention to the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty signed in 2013 to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.

Administrator McCarthy will then travel to Kitakyushu to meet with and honor the women who started a successful movement to enhance air quality 50 years ago in Kitakyushu with their "We Want Our Blue Skies Back" documentary. Administrator McCarthy will also tour the city's cleanup and green growth efforts along Dokai Bay.

On Wednesday, Administrator McCarthy will make her 1st international remarks on the need for global action on climate change at the American Center Japan in Tokyo. McCarthy will speak about the U.S. commitment to building a clean energy economy. She will also speak about the recently announced Clean Power Project, a signature piece of President Obama's Climate Action Project to reduce carbon emissions from power plants nationwide by 32% from 2005 levels by 2030. McCarthy will also meet with Japanese climate scientists to learn about their research.

Thursday, Administrator McCarthy will visit Fukushima Prefecture to discuss decontamination and environmental management efforts following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear event. She will meet with the governor, as well as students, parents and teachers at Futaba Mirai Gakuen High School. E.P.A. has been a partner of Japan's in recovery since the Great East Japan Earthquake occurred in 2011.

On Friday, Administrator McCarthy will join a roundtable with business leaders in Tokyo on the need for climate action, and continue the conversation with members of the National Diet and with students at Tokyo's Tsubasa Sogo High School.

Additional information about Administrator McCarthy's trip will be shared as details become available.

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