Progress against global warming be slower during Donald Trump's presidency but it will continue, his predecessor Barack Obama said in a keynote address to a conference in Italy on Tuesday.
"Obviously the current administration has differences in its energy policy compared to the previous one," Obama told the 'Seeds and Chips Global Food Innovation Summit', quoted by DPA news agency.
Under Trump, it may be that "some of the steps" against climate change will take place "more slowly," Obama said.
But owing to a commitment to cleaner energy by the private sector, Obama said he was sure the US would "continue to move in the right direction".
Greener investments "are already locked into the economy,"Obama told the conference, whose theme is the impact technology and innovation on climate change and food availability.
Obama said planet's changing climate was already "making it more difficult to produce food" and said that shrinking yields and spiking food prices were in some cases leading to political instability.
Obama's remarks come as Trump is mulling whether to pull his country out of the Paris climate change agreement, an historic accord signed in 2015 which was championed by the former US president.
Under the accord, world leaders agreed to keep global warming "well below" 2 C above pre-industrial levels and to strive to limit the increase to 1.5 C above these levels.
