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CEC Publishes Factual Record on the Effective Enforcement of Environmental Law Regarding the North Atlantic Right Whale Submission

Tiohtià:ke (Montreal), 6 January 2026—On 19 December 2025, the Secretariat of the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC) published the factual record regarding submission SEM-21-003 (North Atlantic right whale) filed by Oceana (“Submitter”), who asserted that the United States is failing to effectively enforce its environmental laws to protect the North Atlantic right whale (Eubalaena glacialis) from collisions with ships, known as “vessel strikes,” and from entanglement in commercial fishing gear.

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North Atlantic right whale

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Transforming Recycling and Solid Waste Management in North America

2021 Active Sustainable Living and Economies

Reducing waste and closing material loops help minimize environmental impacts throughout the value chain of resources and products. They also present considerable economic opportunities. Circular economy strategies, including a multitude of recovery options, are estimated to unlock $4.5 trillion in economic growth around the globe. The transition to a circular...

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Solid waste

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Long-term Impact Assessment of the Sound Management of Hazardous Waste Work (1996–2014)

January 31, 2022 2 pages Pollutants

CEC’s work on hazardous waste management spanned 18 years and included the following initiatives:

  • Training and consolidating information-sharing among customs agencies regarding the illegal trade in environmentally regulated hazardous waste materials;
  • Creating a series of comprehensive documents detailing the laws, regulations, trade patterns and enforcement experiences applicable to particular sectors;
  • Developing technical guidelines and compiling best practices for the environmentally sound management of selected end-of-life vehicle batteries, including spent lead-acid batteries (SLABs).

In 2018, the CEC commissioned a report to assess the long-term impact of the CEC’s hazardous waste management projects implemented between 1996 and 2014. The assessment concluded
that these projects yielded several outcomes

The first series of projects on hazardous waste management were carried out as part of the environmental law enforcement work of the CEC between 1996 and 2009, and were designed to expedite the movement of legal materials across borders. They also included efforts to improve enforcement capacity to counter the illegal shipment of hazardous waste and materials, ozone-depleting substances, protected species and wildlife, or other illegal materials that could threaten human health or the environment in the territories of the NAFTA Parties.

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