EPA Collaboration with Australia
Australia, a key U.S. ally, is an important environmental partner for EPA in the Asia Pacific Region and faces many similar environmental issues that we face in the U.S. EPA’s works with national and subnational entities in Australia on strengthening environmental institutions and legal structures, enforcement and compliance issues, water, and otherwise sharing of lessons learned in areas of key environmental concerns.
Explore our work in Australia:
Agreements
U.S. and Australia MOU
On October 20, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Australia’s Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to strengthen environmental protection, protect human health, and advance sustainability objectives. The MOU will initially focus on cooperation that furthers Australia’s overhaul of federal environmental regulation in Australia with objective of creating a new national environmental protection agency. As this new “EPA Australia” develops, cooperation will expand to share information and knowledge on a range of areas.
Activities
Building Strong Institutions and Legal Structures
EPA shares our experience and lessons learned with Australian government officials both at the national and state level, the business community, as well as stakeholders, regarding environmental policy development, chemicals, enforcement, and emergency response. Recent information exchanges have focused on topics including resource recovery, “forever chemicals” such as PFAS, data reporting processes, and institutional continuous improvement.
In their Nature Positive Plan, the Australian national government signaled their intent to establish a new environmental protection agency with strong environmental review, regulatory, and enforcement powers. EPA is collaborating with the Australian government to share U.S. perspectives and lessons learned on issues such as legal structures, enforcement, transboundary pollution, international cooperation, and working indigenous peoples.
In addition, international research projects foster scientist-to-scientist dialogue and cooperation. Discussions also take place under U.S.-Australia Science &Technology (S&T) Agreement workgroups, led by the U.S. Department of State.
- View the U.S.-Australia Science &Technology (S&T) Agreement (pdf) (309K)
Environmental Enforcement and Compliance
Strengthening regional and global environmental enforcement and compliance has been a priority for EPA in our work with Australia. EPA was proud to work with the International Network for Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (INECE) and Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators neTwork (AELERT) to support the 2020 conference Environmental Collaboration: Shaping the Future of Regulation, Compliance and Enforcement Together in Adelaide, Australia to convene, exchange knowledge, and strengthen alliances within the international community.
EPA has followed up on this collaboration on INECE and AELERT including by having exchanges with agencies in Australia on matters including criminal environmental investigations, innovative approaches that foster real-time monitoring such as EPA’s Compliance and Emissions Data Reporting Interface (CEDRI) and Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), and other periodic meetings on civil and criminal enforcement.
Improving Access to Clean Water
Much of EPA’s historical collaboration with Australia has focused on sustainable water management issues. Both countries face many common water quality and quantity issues such as increasing growth, drought, flooding, aging infrastructure and climate change, all of which add stress to limited resources. More recently, EPA has dialogued with Australasian companies on Australian and U.S. on available technologies for treating PFAS-impacted water.
Cooperation on Air Quality
EPA and our Australian counterparts have a history of exchanging experiences and lessons on addressing the reduction of air emissions. Additionally, EPA partners with Australia to address methane emissions through the Global Methane Initiative.
Australia's participation in the Global Methane Initiative
Key Partners
The following links exit the site:
- Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water
- Australian Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry
- New South Wales Environment Protection Authority
- Victoria Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action
- Australasian Environmental Law Enforcement and Regulators neTwork
- U.S. Embassy in Australia