With more than one month in the White House, the Trump administration has still to formulate a cohesive energy strategy, save for the announcement of its decision for the US to leave once again the Paris climate agreement, and also provide incentives for ramping up oil and gas production. Where’s the Biden administration aimed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, the Trump administration is attempting to increase US fossil fuel production, to “restore American prosperity… [and] rebuild our nation’s economic and military security,” as the White House put it. Apparently, Trump’s objective being to start implementing his agenda and to signal the planned strategy for his administration over the next four years.
The current Analysis, which is available here, examines in detail Trump’s new energy policy and the potential impact on Europe and SE Europe; having broken down the announcements from his first few days up to now, in order to assess what the energy and natural resources industries can expect, immediately and over time.
The EU is preparing for the next four years of coexistence with the US administration of Donald Trump. The new White House tenant, now in his second term, has already made promises that have caused concern in Brussels and in the chancelleries of EU member states. From security to the economy, with the bogeyman of tariffs hanging over European industries, already weakened by the many shocks of recent years, the Trump effect on the European Union could cause many problems and exacerbate already existing tensions in the continent.
One of the issues causing the most alarm is energy. Trump’s approach to energy policy, both domestic and international, often conflicted with the EU’s environmental goals, and his “America First” rhetoric already complicated traditional cooperation in areas such as climate change, energy security, and international trade during his first term in office at the White House. In 2017, the Trump administration took a starkly different approach to climate change than its European counterparts, with the decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement. Such a choice sent a clear message about his administration’s stance on climate action and created a great divide with the other side of the Atlantic.
At that time, this move by the Trump administration was deeply unpopular in Europe, where there was a strong consensus on the need for international cooperation to combat climate change. All of this has, moreover, highlighted the vast difference in approach to multilateralism, which was openly disavowed in Donald Trump’s first stint as president and will most likely be further opposed, even harder, in the next four years.
For the EU, climate change is not only an environmental issue but also a cornerstone of its economic strategy. The European Green Deal, launched in December 2019, aimed to make Europe the first climate- neutral continent by 2050, a rather ambitious goal which has of late encountered serious obstacles and straight forward objections by the governments of member countries, which are extremely worried by the constantly rising energy costs and the negative impact on their economies and on the consumer.
