US report: Humans led to climate change

The rapid pace of global climate change is almost certainly driven by human activity, like burning fossil fuels, said a US government report that contradicts assertions by President Donald Trump and members of his administration.

“For the warming over the last century, there is no convincing alternative explanation supported by the extent of the observational evidence,” said the report by a group of more than 50 U.S. government scientists released on Friday.

The report, which is required by Congress every four years, was written by scientists from government bodies such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It reinforces the conclusions drawn by an overwhelming majority of scientists around the world in recent years that emissions from burning fossil fuels are the primary driver of global warming, leading to sea level rise, flooding, droughts, and more frequent powerful storms.

Trump has repeatedly called climate change a hoax, and in June announced that he would withdraw the United States from a global pact to combat it - calling the deal’s demands for emissions cuts too costly for the U.S. economy. War-torn Syria is the only other country outside the pact.

The US withdrawal from the Paris Climate Deal was part of a broader White House effort to roll back what it sees as unneeded environmental protections to boost domestic oil and gas drilling and coal mining.

EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has also expressed doubts about the causes of climate change, at one point saying he did not believe carbon dioxide from human activity was the primary driver.

WASHINGTON: