Japanese Minister of the Environment Tetsuo Saito and Chinese Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian sign the memorandum

The environment ministers of Japan and the People's Republic of China have designated the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES) as a platform for Sino-Japan environmental cooperation at their meeting held 13 June 2009 at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing, China and concluded a memorandum the following day.

IGES opened its Beijing office in July 2006 and has since conducted much joint Sino-Japan environmental work, including a World Bank-funded training project for urban air quality management capacity building in China, joint research to strengthen water environmental management in China, a model project in the field of decentralised sewage treatment in farming areas, Sino-Japan clean development mechanism (CDM) cooperation projects, and policy proposals for the establishment of strategic reciprocity relationships in environmental fields. The ministers praised this record of Sino-Japan cooperation and expressed their hopes that it would continue.

The "Memorandum on greater environmental cooperation between the Japanese Ministry of the Environment and the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection" signed June 14 specifically states,

"The parties shall promote the roles of IGES, the National Institute for Environmental Studies, the Sino-Japan Friendship Centre for Environmental Protection, and the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences as contact points or intermediaries in Sino-Japan environmental cooperation and designate these bodies as platforms for technology transfer and cooperation in matters of environmental protection in the two countries, and shall pursue the transfer of advanced environmental technologies and cooperation in research and development thereof."