Trump unlikely to undo Biden's IRA climate legislation, TotalEnergies executive says

By America Hernandez

PARIS (Reuters) - French oil major TotalEnergies does not anticipate that Donald Trump would pull the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement on climate change or undo Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) legislation if he became U.S. president again, the company's strategy director said on Monday.

Aurelien Hamelle made the comments while presenting Total's energy outlook forecasting global demand scenarios to 2050.

The company's current trends scenario also does not project a lifting of the current U.S. ban on new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities.

WHY IT'S IMPORTANT

Ahead of Tuesday's election, former president Trump has campaigned on a platform involving a rollback of climate regulations passed under President Joe Biden designed to curb the release of greenhouse gases from the oil and gas industry.

That includes leaving the Paris Agreement, under which countries pledge to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius by 2050, and potentially undoing Biden's flagship IRA, which provides massive subsidies and incentives to clean energy technologies.

CONTEXT

TotalEnergies is a major buyer of U.S. natural gas for export, with 10 million metric tons a year under contract, several upstream U.S. shale field holdings, and a pipeline of future projects.

The company also has a 25 gigawatt portfolio of solar, wind and battery projects in the U.S., and is considering several production sites for renewable fuels.

KEY QUOTES

"We take into account existing legislation in our current trends scenario, and for the IRA to be called into question you would need a Republican-controlled Congress, which the polls say is unlikely," Hamelle said.

"What we also see with the IRA, which has offered a framework of support for private finance in all low-carbon technologies, is that Republican states and districts have also benefited from the job creation ...

"What is clear is that the United States will set the pace of the global energy transition ... We have not forecast a 'worse than current trends' scenario."

(Reporting by America Hernandez; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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