The election of Donald Trump could have an explosive impact on the global climate and energy outlook. Indeed, incongruences in the American President-elect’s energy plan raises some serious questions. Trump simultaneously pledges to turn America into a net energy exporter while advocating protectionist policies that would distance the US from international trade agreements. In the same document stating his commitment to make “clean air and clean water” his environmental priority, he promises to end government support for renewable energy through rescinding “executive actions including the Climate Action Plan” and “revok[ing] policies that impose unwarranted restrictions on new drilling technologies.”

Much will depend on the new team in the White House. Given that Trump’s current energy policy advisors, such as Michael Catanzaro and Mike McKenna, are well-connected lobbyists with ties to the petrochemical and oil and gas industries, a marked change in an inauspicious direction for sustainable growth in the long term is foreseeable.

The outlook for a world in which Donald Trump now plays a factor is characterized by three key issues.

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