1. The 19th meeting of the Republic of Korea-Japan joint committee on environmental cooperation will take place in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, from June 29 to 30, with Deputy Director-General for Climate Change and Environmental Affairs Kwon Sei-joong of the ROK Foreign Ministry and Deputy Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Takizaki Shiggeki of the Japanese Foreign Ministry leading their respective delegations.

2. In the upcoming meeting, the two countries will explain their countries’ environmental policies currently in place and related trends, and explore ways to strengthen cooperation between the two sides in a range of areas, including marine environment, ecosystem and climate change. They will also review the progress in implementing ten cooperation projects underway between the two countries, and discuss plans for moving forward with the projects.

3. The two sides will also exchange views on bilateral, regional and global environmental cooperation, including discussing the text of an agreement between the ROK and Japan on the protection of migratory birds, regional environmental cooperation to solve the fine dust problem in Northeast Asia, and bilateral cooperation in the follow-up negotiations on specific regulations to implement the Paris Agreement and in the implementation of the Agreement.

o The upcoming meeting, which comes after the unofficial high-level dialogue on climate change between the two countries in March, is expected to help the ROK achieve its greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for 2030 by providing a useful opportunity to continue to share the experience of operating the Joint Credit Mechanism of Japan, which is working actively to secure carbon emissions rights, utilizing projects to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in other countries.

o The two sides will also explore ways to work together to establish the North-East Asia Clean Air Partnership as soon as possible. The Partnership is being pursued by the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC), which is the only intergovernmental mechanism for environmental cooperation in the region, led by the ROK to solve the fine dust problem in Northeast Asia.

4. The meeting of the ROK-Japan joint committee on environmental cooperation has been held in both countries alternately every year since 1994 in accordance with the ROK-Japan environmental cooperation agreement concluded in 1993. The meeting has helped the two countries strengthen substantive cooperation, including increasing their understanding of each other’s environmental policies, conducting joint research and exchanging related information.


* unofficial translation