Trump playing 'destructive role' on planet, says Al Gore

Donald Trump is playing a "very destructive role" in the future of the planet, says the climate campaigner and former US vice president Al Gore.

Watch Arion McNicoll from TheWeek.co.uk's full interview with Al Gore

In an interview with TheWeek.co.uk, timed to coincide with the release of his new film An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Gore said he once hoped that Trump would "see sense" and keep the US in the Paris climate agreement, intended to reduce global carbon emissions.

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Instead he "threw his lot in with a rogue's gallery of climate change deniers", Gore said, and is now playing a "very destructive role" in not only US environmental policy but also the future of the planet.

However, the climate campaigner said he was heartened that so many other governments, as well as state and local representatives in the US, had come out against Trump.

"I was very concerned when he made his speech withdrawing the US from the Paris agreement, Gore said, "but I was very gratified the next day when the entire rest of the world redoubled their commitments to the Paris Agreement and when in the US the governors of our largest states and hundreds of mayors of cities and business leaders stepped up to fill the gap and said 'we're going to stay in the Paris agreement'.

"It now looks as if the US will meet our commitments regardless of Donald Trump. He's kind of isolated himself."

Gore, who lost the 2000 presidential election to George W Bush by the narrowest of margins, said he was also encouraged that Trump's policies have provoked a surge in political engagement and public protest.

"The people are reacting to him with more activism," he said. "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. And the reaction to Trump is really encouraging to me."

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power opens in cinemas across the UK tomorrow.