The head of the Environmental Protection Agency will travel to Japan next week to discuss the future of climate policy a month after almost 200 countries signed the Paris climate deal in New York.
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy will be in Toyama, Japan, Sunday to begin meetings at the Group of Seven industrialized nations’ conference of environmental ministers, the agency said Tuesday.
McCarthy will discuss “the direction of future climate and environmental policy” while in Toyama, the agency said. “She will also hold multiple bilateral meetings, including with Japan, the host nation.”
The meeting comes one month after industrialized and emerging economic powers met in New York to sign the Paris climate change accord.
More than 175 countries signed the Paris deal, but they still must ratify their obligations under the agreement within their own countries for the deal to move forward. Fifty-five nations must ratify their intent to move forward for the deal to go into effect.
It is not clear if McCarthy will discuss the Paris accord in her discussions at the meetings.
She also will discuss the implementation of a global deal on reducing mercury in a separate meeting in the city of Minamata on May 17, demonstrating that climate change will not be the only issue on her agenda.
The U.S. signed the Minamata Convention on Mercury in 2013 to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury. She will also tour a site focused on environmental cleanup efforts in Japan and will address high school students.
The EPA notes that the agency has a 40-year bilateral relationship with Japan rooted in a history of environmental cooperation.
