Embodiments of the invention are directed to ONO pincer ligands that can be in a trianionic, protonated or protonated equivalent form. The ONO pincer ligand can be combined with a metal comprising compound to form an ONO pincer ligand comprising transition metal complex. By choice of the ONO pincer ligand structure, the steric and electronic properties of the metal complexes therefrom can be controlled. The ONO pincer ligands comprise a central nitrogen atom that is disubstituted with a pair of three atom comprising bridges where the three atoms are a pair of sp2 hybridized carbons and an sp3 hybridized carbon.