The US President branded climate activists 'the heirs of yesterday's foolish fortune tellers' while rattling off a list of projections that he said failed to come true, including overpopulation in the 1960s and the 'end of oil' in the 1990s.
Trump's remarks were a clear swipe at 17-year-old Greta Thunberg who was sitting in the audience for his speech and had earlier chastised world and business leaders for 'doing nothing' to stop climate change.
He then touted America's fossil fuel revolution in the form of shale gas and oil, inviting European leaders to invest.
In her own speech just a few minutes afterwards, Greta urged leaders to immediately stop investing in fossil fuels, and to pull subsidies for companies making energy from them.
Greta had walked out while Trump was still stood on stage in order to deliver her address to a smaller audience, in which she insisted on the need for greater action on the climate.
(Scroll down for her full speech)
In a swipe at the President's pledge to join the 'trillion trees' initiative, she said that it is no good planting trees across Africa 'while at the same time forests like the Amazon are being slaughtered at an infinitely higher rate'.
'I wonder, what will you tell your children was the reason to fail and leave them facing a climate chaos you knowingly brought upon them?' she asked.
Parroting her remarks from when she addressed the conference last year, she added: 'Our house is still on fire. Your inaction is fuelling the flames by the hour.
'We are still telling you to panic, and to act as if you loved your children above all else.'
Meanwhile Trump insisted that technical innovation, not restricting economic growth, is the way forward. 'Fear and doubt is not a good thought process,' he said. 'This is not a time for pessimism but a time for optimism.'
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