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President-elect Donald Trump in New Jersey.
President-elect Donald Trump told the New York Times during a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday that his stance on taking climate change action will depend on what it costs US corporations.
In response to a question from the Times' editorial page editor, James Bennet, about whether Trump thought "human activity" is connected to climate change, Trump replied that there is "some" connectivity, but that action from his administration depends on "how much it's going to cost our companies."
"You have to understand, our companies are noncompetitive right now," Trump said, adding that the US has lost 70,000 factories since George W. Bush's administration, and implied that it was because of bad trade deals with other nations.
"We have to make ourselves competitive," Trump said. "Because a lot of these countries that we do business with, they make deals with our president, or whoever, and then they don't adhere to the deals, you know that. And it's much less expensive for their companies to produce products."
While the US lost around 71,000 factories between 1993 and 2012, it is unclear if trade agreements were the cause.
A 2015 study at Ball State University's Center for Business and Economic Research found that trade accounted for just over 13% of American factory job loss. The overwhelming majority of manufacturing job loss could be attributed to "productivity" gains, most likely via automation.
Trump concluded: "So I'm going to be studying that very hard, and I think I have a very big voice in it. And I think my voice is listened to, especially by people that don't believe in it. And we'll let you know."