Meeting outcomes statement: Council’s 16th Session

Council’s 16th Session

Ottawa, Canada, May 11, 2017 - The Council of the Canada-Chile Commission for Environmental Cooperation met for its 16^th regular session, on May 9 and 10, 2017, in Ottawa-Gatineau. 

This year, Canada and Chile are celebrating the 20^th anniversary of the Council of the Canada-Chile Commission for Environmental Cooperation, signed in 1997, in parallel with the bilateral Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement. This agreement offers a model for environmental cooperation in the context of expanding integration, based on the principle that trade should not occur at the expense of environmental protection.

Since the Agreement’s inception, Canada and Chile have collaborated on

• Building capacity of environmental enforcement and increasing public participation in environmental decision-making, including working on establishing a pollutant release and transfer registry in Chile.
• Increasing scientific and technical efforts to conserve and protect migratory birds, including conservation strategies, population surveys, data collection, bird banding, ornithologist training, habitat conservation, and community outreach. Canada and Chile share 41 species of migratory birds, and they work across the hemisphere through regional networks to protect species at risk.
• Advancing biodiversity conservation and sustainable tourism in Chile’s network of protected areas and national parks, including ecological restoration of protected areas as an adaptation to climate change.
• Exchanging expertise and research on environmental-effects monitoring, invasive species, contaminated sites, low-carbon urban development, environmental accounting, and climate-change issues, among others.

In addition to their regular work program, Canada and Chile will collaborate on delivering a program to deploy technology and to pilot innovative new approaches supporting the reduction of methane emissions in the waste sector, across eight cities in Chile. This four-year, seven-million dollar project will be an opportunity to advance commitments under the Paris Agreement and build on efforts, as part of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition, to reduce short-lived climate pollutants.

Canada and Chile remain committed to the Agreement, and they look forward to its continued success in the future. They will meet again under the auspices of the 17^th regular session of the Canada-Chile Commission for Environmental Cooperation, in Santiago, in 2018.

The 2016 Annual Report will highlight past and planned cooperation, and it will be available online by June, on Chile and Canada’s National Secretariat websites:

Chile’s National Secretariat website

Canada’s National Secretariat website - Annual Reports and Cooperative Activities

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The Canada-Chile Agreement on Environmental Cooperation entered into force in July 1997, following the signing of the Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement. It is designed to promote environmental cooperation and enforcement of environmental laws in both Canada and Chile. It commits the Parties to high environmental standards; effective enforcement of environmental laws; open, transparent, equitable, and accountable processes for developing environmental laws and policies; and environmental cooperation activities to help ensure these commitments can be kept. In addition to the Council, the Canada-Chile Commission for Environmental Cooperation includes a joint public advisory committee (two citizens from each country) and a joint submission committee (one citizen from each country). The Commission is assisted by two national secretariats, housed in the environment ministries of each Party.