Al Gore: Trump less of climate change threat than I feared

US President Donald Trump is “less of a problem” than first feared over climate change, according to Al Gore.

The former US vice president said this was because Mr Trump’s decision to pull the US out of an international agreement to tackle climate change resulted in the rest of the world and individual US states and cities redoubling their commitments.

Mr Gore added he initially believed Mr Trump “would come to his senses” although he has “surrounded himself with a rogues gallery of climate deniers”.

Mr Gore is in the UK for the premiere of his new documentary An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power.

The film is a follow-up to his blockbuster 2006 global warming film, An Inconvenient Truth.

The sequel details Mr Gore’s travels to the areas hardest-hit by the effects of climate change and his fight to influence international climate policy.

It also addresses Mr Trump’s election victory and decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement.

Mr Gore, asked how big a problem Mr Trump is to his climate change goals, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “It turns out that he is probably less of a problem than I had feared when he made his announcement that the US would pull out of the Paris Agreement.

“Because even though I was concerned other countries might use that as an excuse to pull out themselves, the very next day the entire rest of the world redoubled their commitments to the Paris commitment and our largest states and hundreds of cities and business leaders said: ‘We’re still in the Paris Agreement and we’re going to meet the commitments regardless of Donald Trump.'”

Thursday’s UK premiere will mark the opening night of Film4 Summer Screen at London’s Somerset House.

Al Gore: Live In Conversation, followed by a screening of the film, will be in cinemas around the UK on August 11.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power is released in UK cinemas on August 18.