The energy transition
Trump’s new strategy is rather to ‘unleash America’s energy potential’ in the fossil fuel sector, which will erode America’s long-term green potential. Trump’s goal is to flood domestic markets with immense supply of oil and gas as the demand for electricity surges, due to new data centres and AI, which according to the research (EIA, 2023), projects a 10-15% rise in electricity demand by 2030. However, renewable energy, like wind and solar is already growing fast, accounting for 94% all new power sources in 2024, which could reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and therefore this ‘unleashing’ of fossil fuels initiative is not that necessary if Trump would fund renewable projects, according to Forbes (Silverstein, 2025). Nevertheless, renewables are not entirely reliable, which is one of their primary setbacks, as on average, they have a rough factor capacity of 30%, thus requiring oil and gas as backups (Khan, 2025). One could note here the Heathrow fires which shut down the entire airport. A desire to limit fossil fuel use prohibited backup diesel generators, which would have allowed aircraft landing systems to continue to run (Cole, 2025). This highlighted that, although industries should aim to use renewables, having fossil fuels as a backup is a sensible idea, as limited use of them may not have a large effect on the climate, but could prove useful in times of urgent need. Conclusion In conclusion, reaching net-zero by 2050 is essential in order to limit global warming and secure a more sustainable future. The fossil-fuel reliant infrastructure that currently drives the majority of all sectors in the global economy, including electricity, industry and transport, means immense investment into renewables such as wind and solar will be crucial to replace them. On the one hand, reaching a carbon-neutral economy will be hard given the technology of renewables is in need of significant improvement to become more reliant and more available. In addition, some big businesses may be less inclined to reach sustainable goals, as they are more focused on giving short- term profits to their shareholders. In addition, President Trump’s return to office has seen him make huge U-turns on America’s climate policies, and the USA’s shift back to ‘unleashing’ its fossil fuel output has pushed the world’s biggest economy into becoming less sustainable. On the other hand, reaching net-zero seems far more feasible, when considering the overestimations of the overall costs of transitioning, owing to renewables becoming cheaper in the long-term and to economic growth models and population increases being less than predicted, which drives down demand and prices for renewables. Furthermore, green finance such as green bonds, and ESG, can continue to incentivize companies to make more sustainable investments, which drives the economy in a greener direction. Also, with more developed countries seeing first-hand the destructive impacts that climate change brings, climate summits such as the annual COP meetings will encourage the wealthier countries to focus more on hitting climate goals, as well as investing in improving less developed nations’ green infrastructure, which can in fact prove financially beneficial to all involved.
Therefore, given the research, attaining the goal of net-zero by 2050 will prove challenging, but if countries can make climate change their priority now and not later, it will be economically and politically possible, and will prove interminably beneficial to the future generations.
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