1. The 20th meeting of the Republic of Korea-Japan joint committee on environmental cooperation will take place in Jeju-do (province), the ROK, on July 26 and 27, with Deputy Director-General for Climate Change, Energy, Environment and Scientific Affairs Lee Tong-q of the ROK Foreign Ministry and Deputy Director-General of the Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau Masami Tamura of the Japanese Foreign Ministry leading their respective delegations.

※ The ROK delegation to the meeting will be composed of twelve officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, the Korea Meteorological Administration, Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation, the National Institute of Fisheries Science, and Korea Environment Corporation The Japanese delegation will be comprised of five officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Environment.

2. In the forthcoming joint committee meeting, the two countries will seek ways to work together in the follow-up negotiations on the Paris Agreement as part of bilateral cooperation on global issues; and will discuss ways to work with the international community in reducing ocean waste.

° In particular, the ROK and Japan will share with each other experiences in running the Emissions Trading scheme of the ROK and the Joint Credit Mechanism of Japan; and will explore the possibility of using international carbon markets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other areas in which the two countries could work together in responding to climate change.

° In conjunction with the joint committee meeting, the two delegations will visit the Jeju branch of Korea Marine Environment Management Corporation on July 27 and test-board a Cheonghang vessel, -- a ship that collects ocean trash and oil -- during which the ROK side will share with the Japanese delegation its measures for managing ocean waste.

3. The two sides will also explore ways to work together on environmental issues on the bilateral and regional levels: On the bilateral level, they will work to finalize the text of a bilateral agreement for the protection of migratory birds, and on the regional level, they will discuss how environmental cooperation can be pursued in Northeast Asia to resolve the fine dust issue.

° The two sides will discuss the possibility of launching at an early date “the North-East Asia Clean Air Partnership (NEACAP),” as pursued by the North-East Asian Subregional Programme for Environmental Cooperation (NEASPEC) in a bid to resolve the fine dust issue in the region.

※ NEACAP is a framework for cooperation among Northeast Asian countries to reduce air pollution, the proposed launch of which is under discussion at NEASPEC, the ROK-led, only inter-governmental mechanism in the region for environmental cooperation.

4. The ROK and Japan will review the progress in ten bilateral cooperation projects conducted over the past year in various areas, including marine environment, ecosystems and climate change, and seek out new necessary projects.

5. The ROK-Japan joint committee on environmental cooperation has been convened in the two countries on an annual and rotational basis since 1994 pursuant to the bilateral “Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Environment Protection” concluded in 1993. Through this committee, the two countries have sought to learn more about each other’s environmental policies, conducted joint research, exchanged relevant information and stepped up other forms of substantive cooperation in the field.

* unofficial translation