LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Changes to U.S. energy policiesunder new President Donald Trump are unlikely to have a bigimpact on global action to curb a rise in greenhouse gasemissions, oil major BP's chief economist said onWednesday.
On Tuesday, Trump signed orders to smooth the path for theKeystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines in a move to expandenergy infrastructure and roll back key Obama administrationenvironmental decisions.
As part of his election campaign, Trump promised to bolsterthe U.S. oil, gas and coal industries, partly by undoing federalregulations curbing carbon dioxide emissions.
"The actual implications of change in U.S. policy areunlikely to be a big game changer," Spencer Dale, group chiefeconomist at BP, told journalists in London.
"The U.S. has played an enormous leadership role togetherwith China in galvanizing international support (for action onclimate change) .... Much of that improvement in the outlook forcarbon emissions isn't happening in America," he added.
"Improvements within America are due to energy efficiency... which are still quite valued in an economy that encouragesgrowth and competitiveness."
Earlier on Wednesday, the chief executive of German utilityE.ON singled out the election of Trump as an obstacleto global efforts to tackle climate change.
China has been keen to be seen as leading the way on climatechange as Trump has dismissed it as a "hoax" and vowed duringhis presidential campaign to pull the United States out of the2015 Paris Agreement which aims to phase out net greenhouse gasemissions in the second half of this century.
"What could be a game changer is if the U.S. stops playing asignificant (climate) leadership role, it then has significantimplication for wider international commitment and thatcould have greater impact," Dale said.
In its annual Energy Outlook report on Wednesday, BP forecast renewable energy would be the fastest growing energysource to 2035, increasing at an average annual rate of 7.6percent. (Reporting by Ron Bousso and Nina Chestney; Editing by MarkPotter)