German utility E.On, which owns billions of euros worth of wind parks in the United States, said global efforts to tackle climate change were suffering serious setbacks, singling out the election of Donald Trump as a key obstacle.

"President Trump has clearly distanced himself from climate protection during his election campaign: for him it does not appear to be much more than a disguised attack by the Chinese on American jobs," E.On chief executive Johannes Teyssen said.

"How this will translate into concrete government policies is still unclear. But no one seriously believes that President Obama's climate action plan will simply continue," he told the Handelsblatt energy conference on Wednesday.

Teyssen said he agreed with minimum price proposals for CO2 emissions rights that would create more Europe-wide incentives for carbon-cutting measures, adding Germany's system of funding the expansion of renewables should not be financed by consumer levies but via tax revenues.