It is also important to remember that sustainable development is all about creating prosperity and raising standards of living and the quality of life. This is critical in addressing the environmental and trade relationship. At our meeting, there was agreement among Ministers that environmental and economic goals can be a source of innovation and competitiveness in the economy, not a dead weight cost. Ministers also agreed upon the fundamental linkage between the health and environment portfolios. Understanding and explaining how environmental health improves human health is one of the best tools we can have for building momentum behind environmental policies throughout the Americas.
Healthy ecosystems mean healthy people which mean a healthy economy.
Looking ahead at our next steps, we need to cultivate the concept of community across the Americas by taking direct action on some common concerns. Montreal was the first time Environment Ministers of the American hemisphere met to share views. This alone represents an important first step towards sound environmental management for the hemisphere as a whole. Most importantly, we delivered the message that while policy coherence begins at home, we believe it can and must be improved at the international level. Ministers have forwarded these recommendations to the Heads of State and Government in each of our countries in preparation for the Third Summit of the Americas.