Japan, U.S. Environment Ministers Agree To Cooperate on Mercury, Climate Change

摘要

Top environmental officials from Japan and the U.S. have agreed to cooperate on issues that include combating global mercury poisoning and working toward an international pact to fight climate change. The Aug. 24 agreement grew from a 90-minute meeting in Tokyo between Japan's Minister of the Environment Yoshio Mochizuki and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy. Mochizuki and McCarthy told reporters that they would emphasize support to developing countries that need help reducing mercury poisoning and finding alternatives to the production and distribution of mercury as supported by the Minamata Convention on Mercury, named after the Japanese city where industrial pollution caused widespread mercury poisoning.