Will The Environment Get Better In 2017? Global Warming Saw 2016 Gains But They May Be Reversed By Trump

In many ways, much of 2016 provided a glimmer of hope for combatting climate change and helping the environment even if headlines tended to tell a different story. Building on the foundation set in the past several years, the United States and China worked together to ratify the most significant international climate treaty in history to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. President Barack Obama’s administration continued to push for cleaner energy standards for power plants and clean energy costs finally beat dirty energy.

Things weren’t all right for the environment by any means, however. The atmosphere passed carbon dioxide levels that scientists said marked the point of no return. The year was on track to be the warmest year on record (beating 2015) as December came to an end. The arctic saw its ice disappear while coral reefs died.

And, then, of course, came November: Donald Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, was elected president and the efforts to help reverse those damages came into question. So, can the environment be saved in 2017? Here's what you should know about how life is shaping up for planet Earth over the next 12 months based on U.S. policy trends.

Trump A Foe To Planet Earth? So far, it doesn’t seem like the Trump administration will be much of an ally when it comes to environmental concerns but it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen next year. Since his election, Trump has named a cabinet that is pretty heavy on climate change denial and resistance. His Environmental Protection Agency administrator pick, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, has resisted the agency he will be heading up and is currently litigating against it. His pick for secretary of energy, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, ran to be president in 2012 on a platform of dismantling the agency he’s about to oversee. Trump’s secretary of state choice, Rex Tillerson, is the CEO of Exxon Mobil with deep ties to Russia.

What About The Paris Climate Agreement? Trump has long promised to pull the United States back from the Paris Climate agreement. He has a few options to choose from, as outlined by Wired. The least drastic option is to stay in the agreement but not do anything more than attend the international meetings until 2020 and avoid enforcing domestic energy policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The most drastic would be to completely withdraw from the treaty and from the United Nations framework in general, which was established over two decades ago and sets the foundation for all international climate agreements. The big question, if Trump follows through on his plans to remove the United States from the Paris Climate agreement equation, is whether the international community reacts by pulling back their commitments.

What About Domestic Energy Policy? Obama has been making last-minute moves to limit the incoming president’s ability to expand fossil fuels productions, including a ban on drilling in the Arctic and off the Atlantic coast that may be difficult for Trump to reverse. Trump would also need to provide a scientific reason for dismantling EPA rules already set in place from Obama’s administration (and taking those regulations back could prove politically damaging, a former Bush EPA administrator recently told International Business Times). For EPA rules that have yet to take effect — like the Clean Power Plan that is tied up in court and would reduce power plant emissions — Trump may have an easier time reversing course. Still, with clean energies becoming more and more competitive and lower carbon options like natural gas taking up a bigger and bigger market share, reviving those power plants may be an improbable task due to market forces even if Obama’s energy regulations are dismantled.

Some States Plan On Fighting Back. Regardless of Trump’s policies, some states, including California, are planning on resisting his climate change approach. That state, which on its own has the world’s sixth largest economy, has vowed to keep pursuing greener policies to combat climate change. That includes a pledge from the state’s governor to build a new climate monitoring satellite if Trump dismantles the NASA program that monitors global temperatures and regulating greenhouse gasses domestically.