GLOBE is co-organising a conference on the impact of the upcoming elections in the US, with IES (Institute for Environmental Security) on 12 November. The conference will cover what  effect the elections will have on climate change, international security and foreign policy, when either John McCain or Barack Obama becomes President.

Tom Spencer, who is moderating Session 3 at the conference on the implications for Poznan and Copenhagen, has spoken out in the lead up to the conference. The former President of GLOBE International and executive director for the European Centre for Public Affairs believes the election of a new President provides the opportunity for the beginning of a new era in US-EU relations, stating this would bring ‘major opportunities for a meeting of minds on both climate change and energy security’.

He believes these issues will become the building blocks of a healthy transatlantic relationship rather than a potential hindrance, with ‘the establishment of a level of mutual confidence between Washington and Brussels’ providing the basis for greater cooperation. These themes are therefore to be discussed at the conference in the European Parliament in two weeks time, in what should prove to be an interesting and useful discussion.