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Media Release

Videos, presentations from CEC Council Session and e-waste public forum now online

Montreal, Canada, 8 July 2011—Videos and presentations from public sessions of the June annual meetings of the Council and Joint Public Advisory Committee of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) are now available on the CEC website.

You can now watch the Managing E-waste in North America Public Forum, hosted by the Joint Public Advisory Committee on 21 June, in its entirety, and download presentations from sessions on environmentally sound management practices for e-waste, inter-agency enforcement cooperation and a roundtable discussion with representatives from Dell Global Takeback, Mexico’s REMSA and the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.

The forum also featured an overview of e-waste challenges and opportunities in North America by Sarah Westervelt, e-Stewardship Policy Director at the Basel Action Network.

The second day of meetings, on 22 June, featured the participation of North America’s federal environment ministers—Canadian Environment Minister Peter Kent, US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, and Mexico’s Secretary of the Environment and Natural Resources Juan Rafael Elvira Quesada—who together form the Council of CEC. The ministers met at the Palais des congrès in Montreal for their 18th Regular Council Session and participated in public discussions on CEC work, along with members of the Joint Public Advisory Committee.

The ministers also heard presentations from individuals from across North America on issues ranging from climate change and the reduction of toxic substances to the protection of green belts in urban areas and the importance of pollinators in North America.

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.

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