Donald Trump's energy secretary berates Germany over Paris climate agreement

A final decision from the White House is expected in May

The United States should stay in the Paris climate accord but renegotiate it, Mr Perry said (AFP)

The US should remain signed up to the landmark Paris climate agreement, Donald Trump's energy secretary has said.

But Rick Perry said the existing arrangement on reducing carbon emissions would only be honoured if elements of the deal were altered.

The revised settlement should shift more of the responsibility for limiting climate change to European nations, he said.

“I’m not going to tell the president of the United States to walk away from the Paris accord,” the former Texas governor said on Tuesday. “I will say that we need to renegotiate it.”

His comments come amid speculation that the US President was planning on withdrawing America from the 2015 international accord.

A final decision by the Trump administration is expected in May.

Withdrawing from the accord, which has been signed by more than 190 countries, would represent a major blow to international efforts to tackle global warming.

During a speech in New York, Mr Perry also criticised Germany, which has mothballed nuclear plants leaving it more reliant on dirty coal, saying: “Don’t sign an agreement and expect us to stay in if you’re not really going to participate and be a part of it.

“We need to renegotiate it. They need to get serious.”

Mr Perry, who as governor of Texas backed the expansion of wind power, insisted that the Trump administration would not ditch green energy for coal and shale.

“We are going to ensure that renewable energy finds its way to the grid,” he said.

However, any move by the new administration to water down its climate change commitments would have consequences, other world powers have warned.

There have been suggestions the US could face trade tariffs if its greenhouse gas emissions are allowed to increase while the rest of the world makes substantial cuts.

Mr Trump, who has previously called climate change a hoax invented by the Chinese, promised a raft of policies during his campaign including to undo Obama’s climate action plan and defund UN climate change work.

In November, two weeks after his election victory, Mr Trump said he had an "open mind" on the climate deal.

Then in January, days after his inauguration, the former head of the US President's transition team at the Environmental Protection Agency said Mr Trump would pull out of the Paris agreement.

“I expect Donald Trump to be very assiduous in keeping his promises, despite all of the flack he is going to get from his opponents,” Myron Ebell said.

Meanwhile, more than a dozen state prosecutors have urged Mr Trump not to withdraw from the Paris agreement.

Attorneys general from 12 states as well as the District of Columbia and American Samoa have joined a chorus of voices, including major fossil fuel energy companies and environmental advocates, condemning the idea of exiting the agreement.

"Climate change, if left unchecked, will lead to global environmental dislocation and disaster on a scale we likely cannot imagine," the prosecutors wrote.

The Paris accord seeks to limit global warming by slashing carbon dioxide and other emissions from burning fossil fuels.

As part of the deal, the US committed to reducing its emissions by between 26 per cent and 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2025.