US absence at Paris summit a 'disgrace': Kerry

Former US secretary of state John Kerry blasted the absence of the American government at a major climate change summit in Paris as a "disgrace".

About 60 world leaders and hundreds of ministers, company bosses, and environmentalists gathered for the One Planet Summit called by French President Emmanuel Macron after Donald Trump's decision to abandon the global climate accord.

Trump was not invited and the US federal government was represented by the second-highest diplomat in the American embassy in Paris, Brent Hardt, two years to the day since Kerry and then-president Barack Obama helped lead pain-staking diplomatic efforts to clinch the Paris accord.

"It's very disappointing, it's worse than disappointing, it's actually a disgrace when you consider the facts, the science, the common sense, all the work that's been done," Kerry told AFP on the summit sidelines.

The Paris Agreement took "26 years of work that's being dishonored by people who don't even understand the science," he added.

American summit participants included the campaigning governor of California, Jerry Brown, as well as former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg who has put together a coalition of cities, companies and activists called "America's Pledge" to help reduce US emissions.

Trump's announcement that he will withdraw from the global pact, which the United States is the only nation to reject, has cast doubt on the viability of the deal which aims to keep global warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels.

EA