Trump keeping 'open mind' on pulling out of climate accord

US President-elect Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he has an open mind about pulling out of world climate accords and admitted global warming may be in some way linked to human activity.

"I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much," he told a panel of New York Times journalists.

Asked whether he would make good on his threat to pull the United States out of UN climate accords, AFP news agency reported that Trump said: "I'm looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it." He added that he also wanted to see how much the Paris climate accord "will cost our companies" and its impact on US competitiveness.

According to Reuters news agency, a source on Trump's transition team said earlier this month that the New York businessman was seeking quick ways to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change.

The Republican billionaire businessman has called climate change a "hoax" perpetrated by China and threatened to pull out of the agreement on limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

The accord was reached in Paris in December 2015 after negotiations involving 195 countries. The worldwide pact to battle global warming took effect on 4 November.

The agreement sets a goal of limiting the rise in global temperatures to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial revolution levels.

The United States, the second biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after China, ratified the accord in early September, with strong backing from President Barack Obama.

A US withdrawal from the pact, agreed to by almost 200 countries, would set back international efforts to limit rising temperatures that have been linked to the extinctions of animals and plants, heat waves, floods and rising sea levels.

Two people advising Trump’s transition team on energy and environment issues reportedly said they were caught off guard by his remarks.