United States President, Donald Trump has dismissed a report by his own government which warned of the devastating effects of climate change.

The  White House report which was mandated by Congress and published on Friday last week said climate change would cost the US economy billions of dollars by the end of the century.

Speaking at the White House on Monday, Trump  said he did not believe that the economic impact of climate change would be destructive.

“I don’t believe it. No, no, I don’t believe it. You’re going to have to have China and Japan and all of Asia and all of these other countries, you know. It addresses our country,” Trump said.

He added: “Right now, we’re at the cleanest we’ve ever been. And that’s very important to me. But if we’re clean but every other place on Earth is dirty, that’s not so good. So I want clean air, I want clean water, very important.”

The National Climate Assessment report, which was written with the help of more than a dozen US government agencies and departments said the effects of climate change would harm human health, damage infrastructure, limit water availability, alter coastlines and increase costs in various industries.

It also said projections of damage could change if greenhouse gas emissions were curbed, even though many of the impacts of climate change like powerful storms, droughts and flooding have already begun.

The report, which also supplements a study issued last year that conclude humans were the main driver of global warming and warned of catastrophic effects to the planet said the effects will spill into global trade, hitting import and export prices.

Last year, Trump announced that he intends to withdraw the US from the 2015 Paris deal to combat climate change, adding that the country could not do so until after the 2020 presidential election.

Trump also rolled back Obama-era environmental and climate rules, such as the Clean Power Plan while seeking to boost output of oil, gas and coal for domestic use and for shipping to allies and partners.

He had long said he distrusts the consensus by nearly all the world’s respected climate scientists on the link between human activity and rising temperatures as well as other damaging climate change phenomena.