The Atlantic Council will hold two panel discussions at the World Energy Congress, one of the most comprehensive gatherings on the global energy scene, to highlight diverse perspectives on crucial energy issues.

The session titled “US Climate and Energy Policy Scenarios Post-US Elections 2016” will focus on how the outcome of the 2016 US elections will affect US energy and climate policy priorities in the years to come. The panel will focus not only on the presidential election but also on the importance of congressional elections, as the US Congress will set the legislative agenda on a range of critical issues including modernizing an aging US energy infrastructure and combating climate change.

The session will be moderated by Atlantic Council President and CEO Frederick Kempe with well-known experts including Richard L. Morningstar, the founding director and chairman of the Global Energy Center at the Atlantic Council and former US ambassador to the European Union, US special envoy for Eurasian energy, and US ambassador to Azerbaijan, and David Sandalow, inaugural fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University who previously served in senior positions at the US Department of Energy (DOE), including under secretary of energy (acting) and assistant secretary for policy and international affairs.

The second session, “A New Landscape in the Eastern Mediterranean,” will concentrate on the ongoing talks surrounding the half-century-old Cyprus problem, the resolution of which could lead to a fundamental realignment of the political, security, economic, and energy landscape of the Eastern Mediterranean and open up new ways to develop and monetize the offshore natural gas resources in the basin. The political and market conditions for the various development scenarios as well as the most feasible export options will be discussed. Two experts from the Atlantic Council will be speaking at this session: David Koranyi, director of the Eurasian Energy Futures Initiative at the Atlantic Council and Brenda Shaffer, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center and visiting researcher and adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Center for Eurasian, Russian, and Eastern European Studies (CERES). Representatives from the private sector will also join the discussion.

Defne Sadıklar Arslan, the director of the Istanbul Summit and Turkey representative of the Atlantic Council said, “It was inevitable that two such influential organizations join forces at this important summit that will have such a strong influence on global energy policies. This collaboration showcases Turkey’s huge role as a strategic energy crossroads in the region and in the world.”

Murat Mercan, chair of World Energy Council Turkish National Committee said, “We are delighted to be boosting the synergies of the World Energy Congress through partnership of a prominent organization like the Atlantic Council. We are working to make this a landmark event to construe the future of global energy and devise Turkey’s role in it.”

Please mark your calendar:

October 11, at 14.15 at Uskudar 1 “US Climate and Energy Policy Scenarios Post-US Elections 2016”

October 13, at 10.15 at Uskudar “A New Landscape in the Eastern Mediterranean”

Related Experts: Brenda Shaffer, David Koranyi, and Richard L. Morningstar