Donald Trump has rejected his own party’s findings on climate change.
The congress report on climate change, which was published the day after Thanksgiving, warned that climate change could cost the US billions at a minimum by the end of the century unless urgent action was taken.
Mr Trump hit back at the report, saying yesterday that he did not believe the implications of the report.
“I don’t believe it,” Mr Trump told reporters in Washington.
“Right now we’re at the cleanest we’ve ever been…if every other place on earth is dirty that’s not so good.”
“So I want clean air and clean water. Very important.”
Check out Trump disregarding the report
Mr Trump pointed the finger at Japan and China as chief instigators of climate change, refusing to acknowledge any US responsibility.
The US is currently the worlds leading producer of crude oil, one of the world’s main fossil fuels and subsequent climate change substances, sitting ahead of both Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Some presidential climate change scepticism for your day
Trump’s call for clean air and clean water came despite the report warning that if no action should be taken, effects of climate change would harm human health, damage infrastructure, limit water availability, alter coastlines and increase costs in various industries.
It also noted that damage would be abated if greenhouse gas emissions were curbed, however many weather patterns caused by climate change have already begun.
Hilary Clinton hit out strongly against Mr Trump, claiming that he was attempting to bury the study.
The Trump administration tried to bury a federally-mandated climate change study by releasing it the Friday after Thanksgiving. Here's what they didn't want you to hear:
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) November 26, 2018
“Combating climate change is about more than dollars and cents,” said Mrs Clinton, adding that “our children and grandchildren deserve to live on a planet that can support their lives, liberty, and [the[ pursuit of happiness.”
Former US Vice President Al Gore published a press release on the same day, accusing Mr Trump of attempting to hide the truth.
“Unbelievably deadly and tragic wildfires rage in the west, hurricanes batter our coasts — and the Trump administration chooses the Friday after Thanksgiving to try and bury this critical US assessment of the climate crisis,” said the statement.
“…Extreme weather, heat waves, deeper and longer droughts, crop failures, strengthening wildfires, sea level rise — and they are disproportionately borne by the most vulnerable among us.”
Mr Trump last year announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris agreement, as well as working to undercut Obama-era climate policy.
The comments from Mr Trump come in the wake of America’s deadliest fire on record, with the Californian wildfires claiming the lives of 84 and leaving over 200 missing.
Read the congressional report here.
Check out this footage of the recent wildfires in the US
