US to miss Paris climate pact target by a third

The United States will fall short by a third on its commitment under the Paris climate treaty to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a report released Wednesday in San Francisco.

A crescendo of efforts at the sub-national level by states, cities and business to shrink the country's carbon footprint will not fully compensate for President Donald Trump's decision to scrap his predecessor's climate policies and promote the use of fossil fuels, it found.

"The Obama target was always going to be a stretch," co-author Paul Bodnar, managing director of the Rocky Mountain Institute, told journalists.

"This work shows definitively that states, cities and businesses have the power to bring the nation to the brink of that ambitious target through their own authorities."

-AFP, San Francisco