The Copperbelt Environment Project is a Government of the Republic of Zambia programme, with proceeds from the World Bank and the Nordic Development Fund. The CEP will address environmental liabilities associated with the mining sector that accumulated during more than 80 years of mining.

In 1995, as attention began to focus on the privatisation of ZCCM, one issue that came to the fore was the question of what to do about the environmental degradation that this long period of mining had caused, whose responsibility it was, and how would controls be applied in the future. 

As privatisation progressed, the Zambian Government (GRZ), through ZCCM Investments Holdings Plc (ZCCM-IH), retained responsibility for a wide range of environmental concerns, which were not passed on to the new mine investors.

Thus the concept of an Environment Project for the Copperbelt came about, and the Zambian Government sought financial assistance for the project from the World Bank and the Nordic Development Fund.