About the Program

GMF’s Climate & Energy Program aims to advance transatlantic leadership on scalable policy and business solutions to reduce the risks of climate change and achieve a low-carbon, secure, and affordable energy future, while conserving natural resources.

The Program works to support transatlantic cooperation on U.S. and EU domestic climate and energy policies and international climate and energy cooperation more broadly. GMF believes that transatlantic cooperation on these issues is both mutually beneficial and essential for global leadership to avoid dangerous climate change. GMF seeks to inform the debate with objective data and the best examples of successful policies that could be shared across the Atlantic or more widely. Finally, GMF believes that international progress on climate and energy policy depends on the broadening of the debate away from a narrow focus on environmental policy to something that informs all social, economic, and foreign policy.

Through transatlantic dialogues, policy briefs and publications, and study tours, the Climate & Energy Program engages policymakers, business leaders, academics, and members of the NGO community from both sides of the Atlantic.

Major activities:

• The Energy Transition Forum: The ETF will provide a regular venue for open, structured, and fact-based dialogue and debate among select leaders from the private and public sectors from the EU and United States about the market conditions and policy frameworks needed for a timely transition to a secure, low-carbon, and affordable energy future. The ETF will meet twice a year, alternating between the United States and Europe, with the first meeting planned for May 2012 in Washington, DC. The Energy Transition Forum will generate shared assumptions and a common language about the current state of the energy sector and will discuss changes that will be required in order to improve energy security, mitigate climate change and provide affordable energy.
• Transatlantic Cooperation on Domestic Climate and Energy Policies: GMF facilitates the exchange of expertise and experiences between the EU and the United States on ways to increase the ambition of their respective domestic energy and climate change policies. This includes study tours for policymakers to learn more about successful renewable energy policies, sustainable urban development, defusing the potential for conflict over policy disagreements, and a greater role for science in climate and energy policymaking.
• Transatlantic Leadership on the Global Stage: GMF supports strong leadership by the EU and United States in the international negotiations on climate change and in promoting a low-carbon model of economic growth in emerging markets. GMF also seeks to promote improved understanding of the links between climate change and other foreign-policy issues of importance to the transatlantic partners, including international security, climate-induced migration, and energy security.