THE FUTURE OF NORTH AMERICA’S COASTS: Take an active role in identifying trinational opportunities
Montreal, 30 September 2014—From Canada’s Arctic shores, to the Atlantic beaches of the US, and the mangrove forests that thrive along Mexico’s coastline, climate change is affecting North America’s coasts. These effects are being felt in our communities, in our economy, and in the environment.
Join the Joint Public Advisory Committee (JPAC) of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) of North America, on 6–7 November 2014, in Arlington, Virginia, to learn more about these impacts. Have your voice heard about how we can best conserve and restore these vital areas that provide one of the few natural mechanisms for counteracting ocean acidification and other climate change impacts, as well as providing other key benefits such as carbon storage, food security, and protection from storm surges and flooding.
Now more than ever, we must give communities the tools to adapt to these changes. This is the goal of the JPAC meeting this fall, whose theme is “North America’s Coasts in a Changing Climate.” JPAC welcomes members of the public to attend and participate in discussions with North American leaders from NGOs, government, academia, and industry. There is no cost to register.
The meeting will be chaired by the 2014 JPAC Chair, Robert W. Varney, a former Environmental Protection Agency New England Regional Administrator, one of the United States’ most experienced and respected environmental leaders. During the two-day meeting, leading experts will engage the audience in discussing issues, challenges, and opportunities for developing strategies to address the effects of climate change on coastal ecosystems, trinational opportunities to enhance and restore those ecosystems, and ways for coastal communities to thrive as they face the current and future effects of extreme weather events, coastal erosion and rapid development.
Meeting attendees will actively identify opportunities for collaboration and initiatives that the three countries could develop or add value to on coastal ecosystems under the CEC’s 2015–2020 Strategic Plan. The outcome of the meeting will be recommendations that JPAC will present to the CEC Council—North America’s highest-level environmental authorities.
Register today
There is no charge to participate in the public forum, but space is limited and participants must register in advance at www.cec.org/JPACArlington.
For those not able to participate in person, the meeting will be webcast live in three languages, and online participants will have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with JPAC members and invited experts. The CEC Secretariat will also be live-tweeting from the workshop and posting highlights of the proceedings on Facebook. Join the conversation online before and during the event via Twitter (follow @CECWeb) using #JPAC and on Facebook, at www.facebook.com/CECconnect. For more information, contact the CEC’s JPAC Liaison Officer, Marcela Orozco: jpac@cec.org. To learn more about the CEC JPAC, visit www.cec.org/jpac.
About the CEC
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) was established in 1994 by the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States through the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation, a parallel environmental agreement to NAFTA. As of 2020, the CEC is recognized and maintained by the Environmental Cooperation Agreement, in parallel with the new Free Trade Agreement of North America. The CEC brings together a wide range of stakeholders, including the general public, Indigenous people, youth, nongovernmental organizations, academia, and the business sector, to seek solutions to protect North America’s shared environment while supporting sustainable development for the benefit of present and future generations
The CEC is governed and funded equally by the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Government of the United States of Mexico through the Secretaría de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales, and the Government of the United States of America through the Environmental Protection Agency.