Former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged US President Donald Trump to join action to support renewable energy, at a summit on climate change in the Austrian capital Vienna Tuesday.
"To those of you who resist because you can't imagine success without fossil fuels, we ask you to join us, every one, also you President Trump – join us," said Schwarzenegger, prompting applause from the audience gathered for the Austrian World Summit.
The summit is organised by Schwarzenegger's R20 climate NGO and has brought together business and political leaders, including UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, as well as climate change experts and activists.
In June 2017 Trump withdrew from the global Paris Climate Agreement aimed at capping global warming at "well under" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), and his administration has made efforts to boost fossil fuel technologies.
"You said when you become president you want to have so many victories, that the American people would get sick and tired of winning. Well if that's really what you want, then join us because then you will have a lot of victories," Schwarzenegger went on.
Schwarzenegger called for drastic action on pollution, saying it killed nine million people every year.
He pointed to the importance of promoting renewable energy, praising countries and businesses which had already made strides in this direction.
Earlier Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz addressed the summit, but was interrupted by a protester who took to the stage to highlight what she called the Austrian government's "empty words" on climate change.
Kurz allowed the protestor to make a statement before taking back the microphone to make his own speech.
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