New US environment chief questions carbon link to global warming

The incoming head of the US Environmental Protection Agency says carbon dioxide is not the main driver of global warming, a position starkly at odds with the scientific consensus on climate change.

A known fossil-fuel ally, Scott Pruitt’s appointment to head the EPA — a department he repeatedly sued as a state attorney general — was deeply contentious.

“I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there’s tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it’s a primary contributor to the global warming that we see,” Pruitt tells CNBC.

“We need to continue the debate and continue the review and the analysis,” he adds.

— AFP