Implications of the US Elections for

Foreign Policy, Climate Change and International Security

Eastman Building, European Parliament
Parc Leopold - B-1040 Brussels
12 November 2008

Main || Seminar Agenda || Registration || Background Reading || CCIS Programme

Recommended Reading

1. Tipping Points for Abrupt Climate Change - The Shadow That Haunts Climate Policy

"The paleoclimate records show that past climate changes have included both steady, linear changes as well as abrupt, non-linear changes, where small increases in global warming produced large and irreversible impacts once tipping points were passed. Climate scientists now warn that anthropogenic emissions are pushing the planet's climate system toward such tipping points sooner than previously expected, and that impacts could be catastrophic..."

Author(s): Durwood Zaelke, International Network for Environmental Compliance & Enforcement (INECE)

Date / Journal Vol No.: IGSD/INECE Climate Briefing Note - 27 October 2008

Pages: 5

2. Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policies in Europe and the United States

"The New Transatlantic Agenda adopted at the 1995 EU-US summit expressed the common determination of the EU and the U.S. to: "work together to strengthen multilateral efforts to protect the global environment and to develop environmental policy strategies for sustainable world-wide growth. We will coordinate our negotiating positions on major global environmental issues, such as climate change ..." Since this Agenda was adopted more than a decade ago, under a different U.S. Administration and European Commission, there have been major developments in global, EU and U.S. policies with respect to climate change and energy. Rather than evolving in a coordinated way, EU and U.S. positions on climate change have diverged dramatically,..."

Author(s): A Report from the Transatlantic Platform for Action on the Global Environment (T-PAGE). A joint project by the Institute for European Environmental Policy (IEEP) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

Date: September 2008

Pages: 96

3. EU-US Relations - Contribution to EurActiv Debate

"On climate change, the first step towards success in Copenhagen is the establishment of a level of mutual confidence between Washington and Brussels. The US needs to understand that measures on climate change are not domestic matters to be agreed without reference to partners. If I had to point to one area where joint EU and US understanding is crucial, it would be the Arctic, which is the nemesis hanging over both of us..."

Author(s): Tom Spencer, Vice-Chairman, Institute for Environmental Security

Date: 27 October 2008

Pages: 2

4. A Green Light for the American Climate Discussion? - Clingendael International Energy Programme Briefing Paper

"The United States is the most important actor in the current international climate discussion that reached an initial peak at the Bali-summit in December 2007 by drawing a roadmap for negotiations to the end of 2009. Although the European Union and its member states entered the Bali Summit discussions with ambitious climate targets from the ‘green package’, the joint opposition of developing countries and the United States proved insurmountable. It was therefore not possible for the European Union to establish these targets as firm international commitments. Only in the last hours of the conference, after being publicly reprimanded by delegate Kevin Conrad from Papua New Guinea, was the United States willing to continue the negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which will end in 2012. "

Author(s): Warner ten Kate

Date: May 2008

Pages: 7

5. The U.S. Climate Policy Debate: How Climate Politics are Moving Forward on Capitol Hill and in the White House

"The Bush administration's waning days in office herald a likely new approach in U.S. climate policy. Both major candidates in the upcoming presidential election-Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain-have publically embraced approaches to the issue which dramatically differ from the resistance to greenhouse gas regulation that has been espoused by President Bush over the last eight years. Accordingly, while no major climate legislation will likely emerge from Congress before next year at the earliest, the climate debate in the United States is changing..."

Author(s): Cathleen Kelly and Tim Profeta, The German Marsall Fund of the United States (GMF)

Date: September 2008

Pages: 28

6. The U.S. Elections and Prospects for a New Climate Agreement

"After years of stalemate in the international climate negotiations, the inauguration of a new U.S. president presents an opportunity for a genuine breakthrough. Both John McCain and Barack Obama support mandatory limits on U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, and both favor renewed international engagement. But unrealistic expectations about how quickly the United States will move - and how far - could severely damage prospects for any sort of agreement next year in Copenhagen."

Author(s): Elliot Diringer, Pew Center on Global Climate Change

Date: 22 October 2008

Pages: 5

7. Official Positions of the Presidential Candidates

The Obama-Biden New Energy for America Plan
The Obama-Biden Environmental Plan
John McCain on Climate Change
John McCain on Energy
Comparative Issue Index, Brookings Institution

8. Congressional Action in the United States

Graphical Analysis of Key Economy-Wide Cap & Trade Proposals in the 110th Congress by the PEW Center

9. Speech from Ambassador Steffen Smidt, Freiburg

"We are faced with a dilemma: Either we continue to increase our use of energy from fossil fuels and, thereby gradually undermine our very existence. Or, we drastically reduce our energy consumption, and our societies will come to a standstill. Both avenues are unacceptable, so what to do? The answer is as simple as it is daunting: we have to change our way of life."

Author(s): Steffen Smidt, Danish Ambassador for Climate Change

Date: 7 November 2008

Pages: 9

See also the IES Recommended Reading list on Greening Foreign and Security Policy containing over 50 documents especially related to the topic of Climate Change and International Security.