U.S. secretary of state nominee says risk of climate change does exist

Reuters
Rex Tillerson (C) takes his seat between former Senator Sam Nunn (L) and Senator Ted Cruz (R), who introduced Tillerson, for his Senate Foreign Relations Committee confirmation hearing to become U.S. Secretary of State on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S. January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The nominee to be U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said on Wednesday the risk of climate change does exist, and the consequences could be serious enough that action should be taken. When asked during a Senate confirmation hearing to say whether he believed that human activity was contributing to climate change, Tillerson did not answer yes or no, but said: "The increase in greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere are having an effect. Our abilities to predict that effect are very limited." Tillerson is former chief executive of Exxon Mobil Corp. Trump said during the election campaign that he would seek to quit the 2015 Paris climate accord. (Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati; Editing by Frances Kerry)