The world could do without oil, coal after 2020: study

There may not be any growth in oil and coal use worldwide after 2020.

According to a new report co-authored by the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London and the Carbon Tracker Initiative, solar and wind power plus electric vehicles would each experience explosive growth in the coming decades, to the point where 2 million barrels per day of global oil use could be cut by electric vehicles alone.

The report stands in contrast with Trump's vision of a revived coal, oil and gas sector in the US. The revival prospect underpinned his electoral victory in states such as Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia, according to commentators.

The report offered a warning to fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, whose former CEO, Rex Tillerson, is now Trump's secretary of state, that they were underestimating the advances in low-carbon energy technologies and might lose billions due to this miscalculation.