States have developed enormous expertise in environmental management as well as detailed knowledge of local firms with environmental technology. In October 1994, the United States-Asia Environmental Partnership (US-AEP) and the Council of State Governments (CSG) launched this matching-grant program to encourage international partnerships in environment and economic development between U.S. states and Asian/Pacific nations and territories. The initiative enables the long-term transfer of U.S. environmental experience, technology, and practice to targeted Asian countries by matching appropriate U.S. technologies and state regulatory and environmental experience to Asian interests in environmental solutions.

What are the initiative�s specific goals?

• To promote the transfer of environmental expertise and technology
• To facilitate public-private partnerships that link Asian needs with U.S. environmental experience, technology, and practice
• To help bring about a "clean revolution" in Asia by promoting clean technologies and environmental management

How are these goals accomplished?

The CSG State Environmental Initiative fosters the export of U.S. environmental solutions and experience by:

• Targeting the needs of both Asian governments and industries for environmental expertise and technology and matching them with U.S. states that have appropriate environmental experience and practice;
• Disseminating information to U.S. states and to U.S. firms that offer environmental technologies about Asian opportunities;
• Sponsoring a matching grant program in support of public-private partnerships; and
• Monitoring and evaluating these grants to states, conducting outreach activities, and recommending changes to broaden the effectiveness and accessibility of grant funds.

How does the grants program work?

Each year, the CSG State Environmental Initiative solicits proposals for United States-Asian partnerships by distributing a Call for Proposals to all state governments. State environmental agencies, pollution prevention offices, economic development agencies, and/or export trade offices are encouraged to collaborate with each other, with environmental technology firms in their state, and with their proposed Asian partner in developing the proposal.

In addition to the state agencies, successful grant proposals draw on multiple resources, such as nongovernmental organizations, university research and development projects for environmental technologies, private sector firms specializing in environmental technologies and services, and existing public/private partnerships for environmental protection. Funded projects are expected to address the entire enabling process, including issues of policy, technology and infrastructure, research, community involvement, culture, investment, and implementation.

All applicants that request and receive funding, regardless of the amount, must match the grant funds with a 3:1, 2:1, or 1:1 match. The match ratio depends on the development status of the country proposed as a partner.

About the sponsoring and implementing organizations:

The Council of State Governments is a nonpartisan, multibranch organization of U.S. states and territories that fosters excellence in state government by working with state leaders across the nation and through its regions to put the best ideas and solutions to problems into practice. To this end, CSG builds leadership skills to improve decision making, advocates multistate problem solving and partnerships, interprets changing national and international conditions to prepare states for the future, and promotes the sovereignty of the states and their role in the U.S. federal system.

Led by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), US-AEP was founded in 1992 to assist in addressing environmental degradation and sustainable development issues in the Asia/Pacific region by mobilizing U.S. environmental experience, technology, and practice. The program brings together 25 U.S. government departments and agencies and thousands of businesses and nongovernmental organizations that work with 34 nations and territories in Asia and the Pacific. US-AEP activities are focused on the objective of promoting an Asian "clean revolution"� the extensive continuing development and adoption of ever less polluting and more resource efficient products, processes, and services in the Asian region.

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