Clues About Trump Effect on Global Energy Lurk in IEA Data
- President-elect opposes some climate, clean-energy policies
- IEA scenarios show potential impact of failure of Paris accord
Trump's Mysterious Feelings on Global Warming
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Donald Trump’s doubts about climate change and hostility to renewable energy are clear, but the precise impact of his presidency on the global energy mix is harder to divine. An annual data dump from the International Energy Agency offers some clues.
The World Energy Outlook from the IEA -- a policy adviser to 29 nations including the U.S. -- outlines three possibilities. The principal scenario, called New Policies, assumes signatories to last year’s Paris climate agreement keep their pledges and begin to curb emissions. That still falls well short of a second potential outcome in which a dangerous 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) increase in global temperatures is prevented.