Story highlights Trump announced Thursday he would pull out of the Paris accord

He cited an MIT study as justification

Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump used a Massachusetts Institute of Technology study to back up his departure from the Paris climate agreement on Thursday. But one of the study's authors says the President misinterpreted their data, showing "a complete misunderstanding of the climate problem."

John Reilly, the co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change, told CNN Friday that he was unaware the White House was going to cite the study and only found out that they were mentioned when he was contacted by a Reuters reporter.

The study -- titled " How much of a difference will the Paris Agreement make? " -- looked at the incremental changes in the accord that would happen if countries kept their promises. It found that over a 5- to 10-year period global warming would slow between 0.6 degree and 1.1 degrees Celsius by the end of the century.

"Even if the Paris agreement were implemented in full," Trump said Thursday, "with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a 2/10's of one degree Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100."

He then held up his hand, pushed two fingers together and said, "tiny, tiny amount."

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