(Oil Price) – By reversing and axing most climate policies of the Biden administration, U.S. President Donald Trump will not be able to reverse progress in the energy transition as there is still a “compelling case” in favor of clean energy solutions, according to Citigroup’s analysts.
“Clean energy is cheaper, more widely available, and more efficient,” Citigroup ESG analysts wrote in a note carried by Bloomberg.
“For advocates of clean energy transition, the power of economics will prevail,” said the Citigroup ESG analysts led by Anita McBain.
President Trump reversed most of Biden’s energy and climate policies on Day 1, signing last week a slew of executive orders to boost oil and gas production, expand areas for drilling, withdraw from the Paris Agreement (again), halt offshore wind permits until a review into the economics is made, and eliminate the so-called “electric vehicle (EV) mandate” and the promotion of true consumer choice.
Despite all these measures the Trump Administration introduced on Day one, there remains a “compelling case” for the energy transition, Citi analysts said.
The energy transition has progressed and is now more advanced compared to when President Trump entered the White House for the first time in 2017, according to the analysts.
Citi also said that the U.S. banks quitting the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), including Citi itself, “neither impedes progress nor dilutes efforts” to advance the energy transition.
After years of scrutiny and blacklisting from Republican states in the U.S. and lawsuits from Republican attorney generals, North American banks and asset managers began quitting net-zero alliances en masse following President Trump’s election victory.
The top U.S. banks – Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan – are no longer part of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), a group of leading global banks committed to aligning their lending, investment, and capital markets activities with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
